Ryder gave a quiet "Hmm..." as she watched the exchange between Cecilia and Bernard. That sure was a different side of Cecilia. Perhaps the hardened exterior was something to frighten the newcomers. Ryder shrugged this off and quickly shut the cockpit on her Zaruga with a creaking hiss. If their captain was here it must be time to go. Of course, Ryder had to fix her hair first. With a quick movement, she brushed aside strands of her dyed hair behind either ear and looked at her displays, making one last check to make sure she didn't fall apart the moment the Panthers left.

Ryder strapped herself into the seat of her Zaruga as the screens and systems came alive with a whirring. Ryder glanced about, checking each screen, display and control panel as Theta fired up to life. A smile crept across her face lasting a mere second as her main screen illuminated with a pixelated smile itself. It was just an extra feature Theta had.

With her systems primed and ready, Ryder's gaze fell to her right arm. She flicked the mechanical fingers back and forth as if testing them to make sure they still worked. It's shiny metallic plating glinted in the glow of her displays. She wasn't all used to her new 'features' as the doctors called them. She thought about all the little mechanical pieces inside of her body that were keeping her alive and wondered how they would fair in a taxing FRAME fight, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Her prosthesis reached down for her headset that lay by one of her monitors.

"Ryder and Theta online." She said in a calm, almost dry tone into her headset. It might have even come as a surprise to her fellow pilots. She doubted most of them knew her name, let alone had heard her voice. Of course, Ryder had no thoughts about this. She quickly reached a hand up to hit the mute button on her headset and used her free hand to clear any dust off of her viewing monitors. With hands wrapped around Theta's controls, she was ready to go.

She readied herself for Theta's drop. Once Theta was free from the wall, she could finally work his controls a bit and get ready.

Harald simmered quietly over his new XO. It wasn't just her personality- she obviously had different sides, especially with most everyone seeing her being all friendly. He marked her down, as well as the others giving him odd stares, as potential enemies. For others, that might mean being wary and cautious. For him, that meant he needed to pull on their pigtails even harder. Haters gonna hate, after all, and they can certainly try to stomp on him.

So he climbed into his mech- it appeared that most had the faster, lighter armored Zaruga versus the heavier, slower one. That certainly made sense.

Either way, he climbed up, and sat himself in his cockpit, letting the hatches close and everything slowly start coming to life. He placed a hand on the cockpit's walls, feeling the thrum of the engine through the interior. Satisfied with its start up, he started madly typing into the console, watching another screen feed him the results of his scans and searches. He had obviously modified his walker a bit, to the point where he took out some... safeguards, in favor of being able to do more without safety features impeding him, especially if someone decided to get in too close to him for comfort.

He wasn't lying- front line warfare made him nervous. It was all too easy to get into a trap, or get cut off by a surprise attack, or just be the first to take a heavy hit. He much preferred the more intellectual role.

Finished rewriting several safety procedures, he threw on his headset, and booted up the rest of the systems.

"Juppy Bjornson reporting in, with Jupiter Grounded."

Isabella had found her zen. The knots from earlier had been lulled by the rumbling of her FRAME and the minutiae of pouring over mission data. She was ready and rearing to tear shit up, now she just had to count the minutes down til launch. Having already gone through her checks, she reclined a bit in the cockpit and put her hair up and out of the way. Hair secured she donned her helmet, a custom model that she had purchased herself with her deference pay from her last outfit. It was a standard hardened helmet to go with her suit, however it had been modified to allow her eye to connect to the Helmet's HUD system, and from there the FRAME's cameras and sensor arrays. It allowed her to look directly out of the sensors themselves instead of a monitor screen. It was a Euphoric feeling that made her feel a deeper connection to her machine, but she hadn't gotten so used to it that it didn't make her nauseous from prolonged use, so she kept the function off for now. She only used it for those moments that required an extra degree of precision.

Content that her ocular connection was green, she toggled the comms and signed in, "Leclerc and Ghost Killer confirm all systems green. Let's go bust some heads."

Elaine caught Bernards' look her way as she began to strap in and seal up her FRAME. She flashed a grin to the older man and returned his nod as she closed her own hatches. The glow of displays and readouts embraced her in a comforting haze and the web of straps and belts held her like a familiar lover as the hum of her machines' heart coming to life trembled through her body.
Status lights flicked to green and active as umbilicals disconnected and retracted and the FRAME took its' own weight. Voices burbled through the headset of her helmet as the rest of the unit checked in; she was among the last, calibrations to her FRAME having taken a little bit longer.
"Sorry to keep you all waiting," she added with a tone that held a hint of humor. "This is Morgan reporting. Raven's ready to go too."

Edward taking his time looked over the FRAMEs of others once more and shut his hatches, taking a good position in his cockpit. Lights started to flicker alive when he proceeded with the startup process. All lights glowing green he ignited the engine, hearing the stock FRAME waking up from its light sleep, making him tense up. His monitors starting up gave him the sign he was waiting for.

"Edward Johanson, ACS-3G Zaruga, It's go time"

After reporting in, he started to relax, he needed to play it cool. there was no place for slips on this mission.
He Recapped; Four to five trucks, at least two Dreq for each and cargo must be secured undamaged.
He braced himself for the worst, taking note to engage so that the trucks would no be in line of fire. He only wished that everyone could make it.

The pilots sounded off one by one as the Samigina's FRAME bay door slid open, bathing the interior and the machines in daylight. Cecilia brought up her GPS, double-checking the route to the highway. Richard's voice crackled over the radio, sending the FRAMEs off.

"Good luck, Panthers," he bid them in his usual cheery voice. "Bring back that cargo in one piece!"

The bay door reached its zenith, and Cecilia brought her Handou to the front of the ramp. "This is it! Operation is green. Don't screw up!" With that, she dropped the FRAME's wheels from the soles and bolted down the ramp, kicking up dirt as the machine touched open ground. The rest of the team followed suit, with the newcomers (hopefully) paired up with more experienced Panthers. They traveled in a staggered column once they hit roads too narrow for a wider formation. By her estimation, it'd take just over half-an-hour to reach the ambush point.

-----

The target area was a forested section road, just beyond the southern edge of a bridge, connecting the highway to a long exit ramp. With the FRAMEs hidden in the treeline, they could surprise the enemy, so long as their sensors didn't pick them up.

"Bernard, Harold, Jason, Cheryl and Isabella - set up on the left side of the bridge. Elaine, Edward, Ryder and Maia, you're on the right. Bernard, once they get past the bridge, you're going to blow it in half. Elaine, Maia and I will move to block the trucks from the front. We're going to surround the trucks and neutralize the security in one swoop. Once you're in position, turn your machines off. I don't want their sensors to spot us before we can spring the trap. Rely on your visuals until we strike."

The pilots scurried to take up positions as Cecilia ordered. The plan had also been relayed to everyone's HUD, highlighting the Panthers' positions and the convoy's avenue of approach. Cecilia planned to hit them hard and fast, minimizing the security detail's chances of retaliating. If all went smoothly - and she expected it would, this would be a cakewalk.

-----

Just several minutes passed until a set of dots appeared on the far end of the road. Though the view was hazy, due to the heat on the asphalt, Cecilia could clearly tell it was the convoy, and it was accompanied by more FRAMEs that they'd anticipated. Her fingers twitched at the control yokes. As the convoy came closer to the bridge, four trucks could clearly be seen, as well as twelve OSU Dreqs on either side. Whatever the cargo was, it was high on the OSU's priority list.

As the convoy approached the overpass, the vehicles slowed to a crawl, and the hair on Cecilia's neck tingled. Had they been spotted? She cursed, watching the OSU FRAMEs hesitate at the other end. A few moments later, they continued as normal, and she let out a sigh of relief. Maybe the drivers were confirming their route.

Closer, closer, the machines came. By now, they'd almost passed the halfway point of the bridge and were barely 50 meters away. Cecilia's hand hovered just over her control panel, ready to spring her FRAME to life. As the very last truck rolled past the imaginary point-of-no-return, she slammed her controls on and gave the newbies their first command to kill.

"NOW! Let them have it!"

"NOW! Let them have it!"

Edward took the initiative and turned on his ECM barrage jamming engaging the enemy with his AFC-40/L Autocannon while simultaneously making sure to paint targets with his target designator for his allies. "Painting targets for ya'll" he said to his new comrades. Adrenalin rushing through his body he was not sure how well it would end, putting some faith in his team but not enough to act as a decoy.

It was not long before the enemy pinpointed his location, followed by the most hail of projectiles. He held his ground while still retaining his aim so that none of the cargo would be hit but it was not an easy task.

Damn he muttered after which he informed his allies "Taking hits, changing cover" as his left shoulder got a few hits making him switch cover so he'd not get taken out on his first mission.

While he broke contact, he scanned the nearby area as he did not want any unpleasant surprises.

Harold was already moving, intending to check to see if his anti-safety countermeasures worked properly. By default, one usually had to stop and deploy to skate across the ground, to prevent accidentally deploying and rolling when the feet needed to grip. He just made it so that when he deployed them, they deployed, regardless of whether or not he was in the proper position.

Three large steps and then he activated the rollers, unusually skating along behind their XO, as if wearing roller skates instead of self-driving skids.

---

---

He silently dropped into position, and shut down Jupiter Grounded. The others were straight mechanics- they kept their machines in shape, didn't do much to the actual machines themselves. He, on the other hand, routed power so that the moment the mech started up, power would flood the hydraulics. For the moment, it was a rough job- he'd have to tune it and make sure it won't burn itself out later. Right now, though, it'd serve to get him moving immediately after starting up, before the systems were even fully online.

This meant he could open fire first, but also meant that he'd be moving sluggishly for a bit longer than everyone else. He locked the arms into place as he took his position, autocannon already ready.

And then the order came, hostiles moving across the bridge.

He, being Juppy, immediately fired it up, unlocking the arms to dash forward on silent, slowly-starting legs. It took a new kind of coordination to keep the mech from falling over- it wavered and moved weakly, though enough to keep its own weight and move fairly decently. He hit a tree, and ground his shoulder against his, letting its bulk and strength hold him up, as he aligned his missile launcher.

A couple seconds later, another of the newbies started opening fire, painting several mechs that were now turning towards him. It only took a couple seconds for everyone to open fire- he was probably the first one to move, and last one to fire.

It was obvious why, when an anti-tank missile burst from its nest and shot off, burying itself in the first mech that had been painted. As his reactor finally warmed up, he pulled back and took his own weight, stepping away from the tree to give his autocannon room, and his rockets a clear shot. He eyed the mechs cautiously; a couple mechs turned to him in response to the AT missile knocking out one of their own. For a moment, none of their rounds hit, then they started slamming into him.

He turned everything; he faced forty five degrees away from them, giving them armor that was now almost twice as thick, and then leaned forward, so his armor would have a greater chance of ricocheting enemy rounds, and surviving the impact if they didn't.

He waited a moment for one of the mechs to start moving ahead of the cargo vehicles- and the moment that Juppy saw empty space between the mech and the cargo vehicles, he unleashed all his rockets, taking care to aim them carefully. The arc messed him up slightly, but that just meant that they started slamming into the enemy's legs, instead of his chest or thick shoulders.

Slowly taking damage, he opened fire with his autocannon, trying to place rounds carefully, rather than opening fire and hoping he'd hit the right spot. He used the laser designator on his arm as a reticle- he locked his hand so the designator would be facing the same line that the line of fire from the autocannon would, and used that to place rounds in the very center of the hostile mech's chest, hoping for penetration to kill the pilot, or to hit a joint and knock off an arm, leg, or sensor.

Considering that they were facing, more or less, directly at him, with armor that wasn't any more than 50mm, versus an autocannon that could penetrate up to 65mm, he figured he had a pretty good chance of shooting out the pilots without getting shot himself, whatwith a great big angled shoulder inbetween himself and himself in his cockpit.

Unlike many of the other pilots, Ryder did not offer any time to react after the bridge went down. She would take the lead of her group to direct their fire to herself.

With a slam of her ignition, Ryder, too, would take initiative, but contrary to her teammate Edward, Ryder would be seen rushing forth. Her agile Zaruga skated hastily onto the road from her spot in the forest. Her eyes would lock onto her screen, another FRAME in sight of her. As she neared the convoy, Ryder and Theta, surprisingly didn't stop, despite being in range to fire her autocannon. Instead, her frame skated forth at its quick speed, lowering its mass seconds before slamming into the midsection of her opponent. Ryder's FRAME, of course, sustained damage, but with the her dropping her FRAME's weight lower to the ground, She managed to stagger her opponent without ruining Theta.

Ryder, now in a jeopardized position, put on a determined look. She was definitely a target now that she was out in the open. She glanced down to her controls, inputting a few commands in a specific order. Ryder started with Theta's MG27 Light Machinegun. At such close quarters, she figured, peppering the opponents with a barrage would be better than firing her Autocannon and risking a miss. Within a few seconds, the barrels of Theta's LMG lit up, sending forth a battery of bullets. That would at least keep them all from jumping on her.

Her main adversary, of course, would not stop after Ryder had already heavily damaged him. Rounds from his Autocannon flew forth towards Theta, contacting Ryder's FRAME with a bang each time. Ryder paused for a mere second and no more in thought. She was not going to run. Either way she would be damaged, so she might as well do some damage in return. It seemed Theta was temporarily immobilized as Ryder was shelled. Ryder sighed as Theta's arms moved into position with her own AFC-40/L Autocannon.

Ryder let off a few blind shots before allowing her FRAME to backpedal. She managed to trade blows with her opponent without sustaining any system breaking damage before she got to the side of the road the convoy had been on. It seemed she was allowing her FRAME a momentary respite before another attack. She was definitely not running at full capacity now, but that didn't seem to discourage her as she readied to charge into melee once more, her communications line still utterly silent.

Scattered thoughts rushed forward through the haze of boredom that was quickly breaking in Maia's mind. She took a deep breath, tried to find her center. Being here and there in the middle of a firefight wasn't a good thing.

Edward had pulled a bit of fire to himself, and Ryder and Harold seemed eager to rush into the gap. Maia's plan, by comparison, was a bit simpler.

She ran around, going towards the front of the convoy. Loosing half her salvo of rockets ahead of them by a margin of 75 meters, just close enough to make them hesitate. Her autocannons focused, loosing fire at the Dreqs at the lead of the convoy, strafing as she went. Tearing them open would be good, but her main goal was to get the trucks between her and her opponents. Logic would dictate that if they were valuable enough to have such a large escort, they'd be valuable enough for the escort to not turn their guns on. That'd make them the perfect cover.

She just needed to get to it.

Her skates went on as he got onto the open road, and she crouched as low as she could as she skirted around and onto the bridge. Her guns didn't stop firing until she was close to the trucks, and couldn't afford a stray shot destroying the thing they were sent to retrieve. Her logic seemed sound enough. Let's just hope that the enemy had the same line of thought.

Elaine had followed dutifully in Cecilia's wake with the others as they left the landship behind. The foot-wheels of her FRAME hummed softly as the machine skated over the uneven ground. Time and miles rolled away quickly over the half-hour they spent getting into position. For most of it, she had a good view of the back of one of the others' machines. They spread out as the ambush point came into view. It was classic; a road flanked by gently sloping embankments, wooded with trees and other foliage far enough apart to permit their movement but dense enough to shield them from view.

She took a crouched position, and then shut down her FRAME as commanded. She popped the hatch for ventilation, allowing cooler air to circulate inside the stuffy cockpit; with the power off, the environmentals were shut off too. Sitting in a dark, metal box with no air wasn't exactly great for pre-mission calm.

What seemed like no time at all passed, and the convoy hove into view. The redhead grimaced as she buttoned up the machine once more, switching to minimal backups, enough for visual sensors to be online.
Time to get interesting, she thought wryly as the convoy paused. Like Cecilia, she had a prickle of doubt climb up her throat as the targets paused. A flutter of anxiety spiked in her breast, before dying away as they moved on.
The other machines sprang to life as Cecilia's voice urged them into action.

Edwards' laser designator stabbed out, and ECM kicked off. She did the same adhering to her role and expertise. Moving from cover to cover, she cranked up her own ECM system and designated targets, handing off data to the others as she darted between trees, and advanced down the slope as the others engaged targets. She saw Maia move forward, acting on their orders. Enough cover was coming from the others that the redhead followed suit, backing up her team-mate with swift, short bursts of autocannon fire. The rifle-like weapon was tucked tight against the FRAME's shoulder as she danced the machine between cover, aiming for sensors, joints and weapons on the enemy machines. Like Maia, she had the aim of closing into close range. Her comrades were already providing pinning fire from the higher embankments of the road. It was a good time to start hitting harder.
Skidding down the slope, she darted her FRAME closer, snap-shooting in short, precise bursts at the head-sensors of the nearby Dreq, aiming to destroy and disable its' targeting alongside the blanket of jamming being blasted out by her Frame and Edwards'. As soon as she saw the head turn to a heap of scrap, she shifted her aim to the torso, aiming to cripple balancing systems, power and whatever other vulnerable and essential systems resided in the core of the machine.

"Tch!" Cecilia gritted her teeth as she saw Ryder jump into the OSU formation, ramming her FRAME into one of the Dreqs. The maneuver had startled the pilots, sure, but now Ryder was in a less-than desirable position, sandwiched in-between hostiles and already trading autocannon fire - not ideal circumstances to pull this plan off.

"What the fuck are you doing, newbie?!" blared Cecilia over the radio. "Get out of there and use your gun!"

As Cecilia bellowed into her headset, she noticed the trucks pick up speed, drivers slamming on the gas to get the OSU's precious cargo out of danger. She bolted from her position in the trees to intercept their escape.

"Elaine! Maia! On me! We have to cut them off!"

As she darted for the trucks, Cecilia whipped her autocannon around, bringing it to bear on a Dreq that was closing in on Ryder. She gave the trigger on her control yoke a squeeze and her weapon roared to life, sputtering 25 mm AP rounds at her target. The tungsten penetrators of the ammunition hammered into the Dreq, severing an arm from a shoulder and piercing through the torso. The force of the rounds kicked the machine backwards and it collapsed to the road with the grind of metal on concrete.

"Just shoot them," she directed at Ryder. "Take advantage of the position you're in. In a FRAME, you've got to use the most efficient means available to you. Hitting them with crossfire in-between our positions is more effective than melee ever could be."

Cecilia swiveled her FRAME on its wheels, now zipping backwards and keeping ahead of the lead truck. She pointed her rocket pod to the round and let loose a small salvo. The warheads slammed into the road, tearing up concrete into an impassable jumble of debris. The trucks slammed on their brakes, veering off-course as they came to a halt.

It was too early to celebrate though - a trio of Dreqs had escaped the crossfire of the ambush and were headed right for her. Cecilia readied her weapons, expecting Elaine and Maia to do the same.

By now, the Dreqs that were still operational were starting to regroup. The initial surprise of the ambush had done its work, but the Panthers still needed to clean up.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit” Avice muttered under her breath as her Zaruga’s systems slowly went through the process of restarting. Like everyone else she had shut down her FRAME completely to avoid detection. Unfortunately when the order came to active their FRAMEs, Avice’s chose instead to crash all of its systems, forcing her to start the booting process from scratch. Normally that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, taking less than thirty seconds, but those seconds felt like hours when unseen explosions could be heard all about.

Avice let out a sigh of relief as her FRAME finally finished booting up, only to curse under her breath. Things had progressed quite a bit while she was out of the fight. Four, maybe five, hostiles were down; although, despite their loses the Dreqs were regrouping. Avice cursed again when she noticed Ryder had chosen to charge into the midst of the Dreqs; there were a couple of Dreqs she would have loved to fire a barrage at that, unfortunately, Ryder was in front of.

Choosing to shift her attention elsewhere, Avice fired a short barrage at one of the Dreqs advancing on Cecilla. Several of the twenty millimeter rounds slammed into the Dreq’s left leg. The rounds failed to penetrate, but the Dreq was thrown off balance regardless. Avice set her missile to lock on to the Dreq, waiting for the series of beeps to turn into a single drawn out beep before letting her missile fly. A moment later the Dreq exploded in a glorious fireball, shards of metal littering the road around it.

Several incoming rounds slammed into a tree near Avice’s frame, the Dreq that fired near her quickly adjusted his aim and fired a second barrage. The sound of metal scraping against metal as twenty millimeter rounds tore the paint, as well as several centimeters of metal, off of her FRAME’s paint caused her to wince. She began to bring her own gun to bear but thought better of it when a third barrage tore one of her should mounted missile launchers to pieces.

“Thank god I already fired that missile” She muttered as she swung her FRAME into cover behind a cluster of nearby trees. Not that the scrawny plants would provide much protection from a twenty millimeter round.

“Azor here” She radioed as she fired a quick burst of twenty millimeter rounds at the Dreq, “One of the Dreqs has me pinned, can anyone give me a second or two of cover fire?”

Ryder's troubled expression showed a glint of anger from within her FRAME as Cecilia radioed her. She gritted her teeth as she retracted Theta's skates. Despite her urge, she was not about to disobey her C.O. Theta's LMG peppering halted with a short echo as she drew up her Autocannon. Her eyes locked onto the FRAME that had started to advance on her, but it was made quick work of by Cecilia's fire. Ryder found herself a new target, seemingly holding close to the cargo, firing off occasional rounds at random Panthers. With her target in sight, Ryder aimed the rather large assault rifle.

Theta pulled back the trigger letting a barrage of bullets fly forth. Ryder and her FRAME were a primary target of the enemy FRAMEs and the minimal cover around her wasn't helping. Firing in bursts, she managed to disable her opponent, before she had Theta start to backpedal. If she was going to fight with her Autocannon now, she might at well put some space in between her and her enemies.

It was obvious Cecilia didn't like her head-on assault idea, so Ryder would simply stay back and play it the C.O.'s way. All her teammates were relatively safe, so there was no reason to put herself in harms way if Cecilia didn't want to engage them close up. Her Autocannon continued to rattle off shots until the opposing FRAME she had targeted was seemingly disabled. He was at least not going anywhere or shooting anything.

With that, Ryder's skates activated and Theta flipped around. Her FRAME darted back towards the trees and the fire concentrated on her started to slow. Quickly, she prepped her Autocannon for another attack, her radio still dead silent. It seemed this battle was on the move now. With the cargo truck already ahead of the Dreq FRAMEs, the firefight had been split in two. Ryder peered out of the tree cover, assessing both her allied numbers and the numbers of her enemy. She planned to take out the remaining enemy FRAMEs and she'd have to rely on Cecilia and those that went with her to secure the cargo.

Seeing his comrades trading shots with the enemy, he decided to try and grab some attention by spraying his torso mounted MG27 Light Machinegun towards the defenders barely bothering to aim when the trucks had taken off from behind their escort. As he was firing away with his Light Machine gun he set his AFC-40/L Autocannon on his left arm so he could obtain better accuracy by using the laser target designator as laser sight, not that he did not have anything to aim with before.

Edward started to push at the enemies and started firing at the enemies heads so he could disable their main visuals making it harder for them to look around and aim their weapons. Firing 3 shots at the Dreq pinning Azor down the first 2 hitting the torso but not penetrating due to the bad angle but hitting the 3rd in the head, at least damaging the visual sensors if not taking them down. "You're clear Azor, make it count" He shouted in the radio. After disabling that Dreq he moved to the next one that was already starting to shoot back and angle its body so that it would be harder to get trough the armor other than the head that was looking at him head on (no pun intended). He managed to out the head after quiet a lot of bullets had been exchanged, getting his ECM destroyed in the process. "Lost ECM. We better wrap this up quick" he spoke to the radio.

"should we take some hostages from the disabled frames" Edward questioned thinking of possible benefits and back to his army days. The Panthers probably would have got less from taking hostages if not only problems but that didn't really cross his mind. As an after thought he added "should we try to get clean kill's for salvage?" thinking a bit less like an army man starting to get a bit into the mercenary way of thinking as he realized he would have to provide himself with his gear from now on with all the good and bad to come with it.

Although some of the greener pilots had strained under the sudden, fast-paced nature of the engagement, the Panthers as a whole had performed well. Nine of the twelve Dreqs were either scrapped or out of action, and the remaining three now found themselves trapped with Cecilia, Elaine and Maia at their front, and the rest of the Panthers emerging from the trees to their rear. They hesitated, both stunned at the quick destruction of their unit and their inability to keep their shipment safe. Cecilia switched on her FRAME's loudspeaker function, hailing the trio of OSU pilots.

"Shut off your FRAMEs and step out of the cockpits," her voice blared. "You're surrounded and outnumbered three-to-one." Cecilia kept her autocannon trained on the Dreqs, ready to fill them with tungsten if the pilots made a last display of defiance.

Slowly, the hatches on the Dreqs hissed open and the OSU pilots emerged, defeated and downtrodden. Cecilia pointed to the treeline, corralling them to the side of the road. She did the same to the drivers of the trucks, who reluctantly parted with their cargo at the end of the 25 mm barrel.

"Good work," Cecilia radioed to the Panthers. While it didn't sound like a genuine praise, it wasn't mocking, either. "Secure the area. We'll get this cargo loaded on the Samigina and see what we can do with these Dreqs. Don't relax too much, in case the OSU are on the scene."

-----

In less than an hour's time, the trucks had been hauled into the Samigina's vehicle bay, along with the Dreqs that were complete enough to warrant taking. As for the OSU personnel, they were left tied up on the side of the road. It wasn't any concern of the Panthers what became of them now. They didn't take hostages or kill prisoners; they weren't terrorists. Those that had died today did so because they were immediate threats. Somebody would find the survivors, and the OSU would clean up the mess, for better or worse.

The Panthers were gathered in the hangar. No sooner did they emerge from their FRAMEs than they were met by Richard Bentz, wearing the same PR-friendly smile that he sent them off with.

"Splendid work out there, Panthers," he chimed. "I've notified Cradle of your success. We'll be meeting a representative in Hamarr to pick up the cargo you recovered during the operation. As for the evaluatees-"

"Director," Cecilia interrupted. "I'll have a report of their performance for you within the day. While they show capability, I-"

Richard waved his hand and cast his head to the side with a dramatic flair. "Ugh! I think we can dispense with the formality this time, Cecilia," he said. "I've already decided to bring them in. As of now, you're officially Panthers."

"But Richard!" Cecilia whined.

"I was watching the operation from my office," he explained with a glint in his eye. "While there are a few edges to be ironed out, I think you're quite capable of keeping them in good form, Cecilia. And I'm impressed with how you handled those OSU pilots." Bentz turned to address the whole crowd again and explained, "Cradle sent us payment in advance of our arrival. I've transferred your shares to your accounts. Welcome to the fold."

-----




The Samigina rumbled as its powerful grav-engines guided it to the ground. The Panthers had just arrived at the city of Hamarr. It was a true urban jungle, sprawling concrete towers stabbed the clouds, bedecked with panels of glass and neon. The landcruiser was nestled into a docking bay, crawling with engineers and maintenance personnel. Not far from here was the headquarters of Cradle Dynamics, where the Panthers would deliver the stolen OSU goods, and likely pick up another job.

Richard's people would handle the delivery. He'd given the pilots a day of leave to kick back and spend their earnings. Hamarr had a bit of everything; truly a cosmopolitan city, both culturally and recreationally. There was also no shortage of places to buy parts from. Cradle's HQ brought in a healthy stream of business, and many eagerly sought to take advantage of incoming traffic and guide it to their wares.

Cecilia stood on the dock outside the landcruiser. Everyone who wanted to go into Hamarr was told to meet her in fifteen. Although she normally held the whip, she had little intention of becoming a chaperone. She was out to enjoy the city as much as anyone else. Her combat fatigues had been replaced with a simple, yet trendy ensemble of a cloudy dress with long sleeves that ended a respectable distance above the knee. Over this, she wore a leather jacket with the unit emblem painted on the back; a panther stalking across a field of stars.

Juppy, armored in military-style cargo pants, a black, somewhat form-fitting t-shirt with the Panthers' logo, and, like Cecelia, a leather jacket with the same logo across the back. A pair of military tactical gloves ("These are my lucky pair!") with hard knuckles and running shoes finished off his attire, as he jogged down the ramp, toward the surprisingly stunning XO waiting for those wanting to go off into the city.

Being the first one to join her, he glanced back at the currently empty ramp, and then at his commanding officer. After a moment of observation, he gave her a smile, and turned back to the city, staring curiously at the high rises and the sky scrapers, at the particularly bright areas of lights where some kind of event must be going on. All the while, he tapped his foot absently, the thumb of each hand in his pants' pockets, the rest of his fingers and hand splayed out and hanging.

After a few moments, he asked Lang, "So, not bad, I hope? I mean with the mission. Not a single one of ours was even penetrated, and we disabled or destroyed nine out of twelve hostile mechs- captured the other three intact. Not bad for a rookie team, I would think.” He turned towards her again, slightly, giving her a friendly glance out of the corner of his eyes.

“If you’d allow it- what’d your report say about me? I admit that I’m curious.”

Edward was taking it easy now that he knew his team could make it and everyone proved their worth and above all, he had made the cut for the Panthers. He started planning on how to customize and paint his zaruga; giving it a nice paint job, adding the Panthers emblem and maybe even decorate the cockpit. He was heading for

Heading out to group up with everyone preparing to hit the town, he arrived after the really talkative guy, Juppy wasn't he? Seeing him and Cecilia converse he stood far enough to not interrupt nor really hear what whey were talking about deciding that entering at the right moment was the key to proper first impressions. After the two had finished the exchange he moved in to the rendezvous point "It seems I'm early"

Sarah sighed softly. It had been a long road from the OSU to the SL. As well as a difficult one. Having to obtain many, many false documents to get over the border and spend the little money she had to do so. It wasn't the issue of getting the approval of the SL to stay. It was getting out of the OSU. The country was locked up tighter than the vaults of Cradle Dynamics. That she knew of course. In her long years at her fathers company she had seen more stolen designs, machines and parts than actual innovation. The kind of thing known by all and spoken by none for fear of being accused of treason, sent to the gulags and never been seen or heard from again. So it bothered her little that she missed the fun stealing from them. It was probably just Cradle wanting some stolen technology back. She looked at her lighter. One of the few things she had kept from her old life. A standard military issue lighter, rugged and well worn from years of use. Then to her cigarette pack. Borhaben. My god, to know what she had to do to get that brand here. It was reserved for the upper echelons of the union, the black market price almost put it at 20 credits a pack. It was worth it though. Nothing was as harsh and lung blackening enough here in the SL. She looked down from her perch on the roof garden and wondered when, if, the Samigina would land to unload it's repatriated cargo. Lifting the smoke to her lips she savoured it before lighting. Taking each puff deeply before putting her hands back behind her. Theep, theep, theep. New message, a soft masculine Osbanian voice echoed. The Samigina has landed in sector 12, section 2 of the city. Long live Osbania!", she mouthed the words softly in time before slipping off the roof, merely falling backwards to the porch below and repeated so till she hit the ground.

She pinged the cigarette away after pulling the last desperate drag from it as all Osbanians did, no filter you see. She softly closed her eyes and a visual map of where she needed to be appeared before she walked off in the direction of the Samigina. Theep, Theep, Theep, One new message, Valantino the Third, Deleted. The false states shall fall!", once again she mouthed the post script added to all messages she received and proceeded through the city. Getting the odd look repeatedly from the denizens, who usually eyed her with suspicion. It was quite obvious where she was from. She just cocked her head and smiled at them as she continued. Taking the odd shortcut here and there before biting her lip as she turned the corner to the central cargo station and moved to find the rest of the crew. She was usually dressed in loose fitting clothes, however had recently decided to dress more like the locals. Showing herself off, feeling more suited to the freedom she gained leaving, a tight fitting jumpsuit she picked up a while back. She liked it a lot. The stupidly bright colours would be dazzling to most as it looked straight out a jackson pollock painting. She wandered a while. Taking in the sights as she usually did before she spotted a familiar face. It was Richard!, a wide grin spread across her face as she began to sprint almost silently to their position before she did a quick flip to gain forward momentum and glomped him hard. The short lassies face brimming with it's usual unnerving glee. She was the kind of person to take great pleasure in familiar faces. No matter how much they berated her, or chastised her. Or anything for that matter, if she knew you, you were her number one. Her bright red eyes looked up and as usual the fractal scarring around them distorted as her smile brimmed. She knew they were "off duty now", so she could get a way with a little more than usual. Not that she cared much for personal space even then.

It took her a few seconds to register the rest of the team. New faces? The lass had been away for quite some time it seemed. When she requested leave she was usually pretty dark. She'd respond to level one communiques only and this hadn't been that important. She brimmed a smile towards them, "Good afternoon!", she said with a manic glee, "I see fresh meat for the grinder!", her eyes closed some as she cocked her head to look at the man in the black jacket. "I'm Sarah, resident communist", she gave a soft giggle and once more proceeded to invade personal space and gave him a hard hug and repeated the same for the stupidly tall man beside him. The poor lassy dwarfed by the immense stature of him. But she cuddled just as hard before pulling back and began to eye up Cecilia, wondering if she would get away with trying it on her. Knowing by now not to mess with her mood. The poor girl biting her lip as she crunched in her mind the chances of being solidly destroyed for it. She hadn't seen her in a while and it could be seen in the young lassies posture that she really wanted, goodness it made her skin crawl. Seemingly almost in anime style to edge closer to her intended target. Yet never actually reach it.

Elaine trotted down the ramp a little behind Edward. Like the others, she'd dressed for a good day - or night - out on the town and had abandoned her military-issue clothing for something more relaxed and personal. The copper-haired pilot wore a pair of hip-hugging jeans paired with brown suede boots that ended at the knee; they had a little of a flat heel, giving her a couple of extra inches. Which, in her opinion, she could use. On her top half, she wore an elegant corset-style top in purple and black. Like the others, she too wore the units' leather jacket over the top - and her ever-present goggles were pushed up on her head. A slim black velvet choker circled her throat to finish off the ensemble and she gave a smile to the others as she walked up, looking over both Cecilia and Edward with admiration. Her team-mates looked good. Like Edward - whom she nodded to as she approached - she stood a short distance off, not intruding on the conversation Juppy had started, but listening in with polite interest as they waited.
"Eager to go explore the city?" she asked the other pilot, making conversation as she stood nearby. "Not sure if you've ever been here before, but Hamarr is somewhere you can find pretty much whatever you're looking for, if you've got the cash", she continued with a smile. "Especially a damn good time!"