Ryder lit his cigar, the flame surrounded his face in a very dimly lit garage, he was grinning as he chomped down and took a few short puffs. I'll try and make this short, as I can tell you are all very busy people. He blew a cloud of smoke into the air as he cracked open a folder with some pages and pictures inside it. Im pretty sure youve never heard of the Dirty Thirty, they mainly operate out of the shithole that used to be san diego, but they are steadily becoming more of a problem. Simply put, I want you to kill all of them, all 28 of them, I managed to clip 2 of them myself in texas, wasnt easy though, even when they arent all together in a huge pack they usually travel in groups of at least 8.

Ryder threw down a design of a frame with some basic info sheets with it:

Ryder squinted his eyes as he took a long drag from his cigar and glanced at the 6 pilots in front of him.
Dont look so fucking scared, all their frames are like this and they suck, I took down two with no trouble whatsoever. They are weight class 5 frames all armed with a pistol a sub and a crappy out of date mark 2 sword, you should be able to tear through these so called 'freedom fighters'
Ryder walked over to a clip board that was shrouded in darkness, only slightly illuminated by his half smoked cigar, he switched on a nearby lamp and revealed a map on the clipboard.

Okay this is quite simple, at 10pm tonight, all 28 of these shit heads will be raiding an ethus depo thats about 80 miles away from here, except its not a real depo, its a trap I set up so I could get all of the fish in one barrel. I dont care how you do it, but I want all of them dead before 6 am tommorow, the reward is 450,000 credits which you can divide amongst yourselves. Its 5:34 so you can all take stock and get to know each other here for an hour then you need to be out of this garage because these 7 CVFs are sure to be attracting attention, so get 'strategizing'

Ryder began to stroll towards his Frame and take and run tests on his laptop on the other side of the garage, while the 6 strangers got to know each other.

Alexander shrugged. "Where's the nearest vantage point. give me a sniping post and I'll make sure no one leaves the area alive" he said and tossed a small blue marker chip on to the table. "put that on the map where the vantage point is" he added and swung himself up his Frame. settling down he pulled out a odd looking screwdriver he started to work one of the plates off, taking his time, making sure not to damage it. "I need to check the power feed to my main gun. give me a yell if you need a hand."

Simon let out a soft chuckle to himself, as he struck a match and brought the small flame to the cigarette in his mouth. Ryder seemed to be tough-n-gruff, it was fitting to his appearance. He took a small puff and looked around, it was a ragtag of mercenaries and drifters, there were some big names here as well. Letting out a breath of smoke, he listened to the man who went by the name, 'Alexander'. He seemed confident enough in his skills and his frame was a rare piece, Colham-built, you didn't see many frames like those out here. Looking around he saw the rest of the frames, the team that had been put together for this job was packing pretty heavy firepower. It appeared as if this job would be a cinch, although, it would all be dependent on the willingness of the team to work together.
Blowing one last cloud of smoke into the air, Simon dropped his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. He spoke up, "I'll provide air support and cover fire for you guys," as he spoke he pointed to the Judgement which was kneeling down on the ground, currently parked. "If any of you guys are in a tight-spot, just call me in for an air-strike."

Ryder had explained their mission. It was easy enough, an ambush with probably some seek and destroy afterwards. 28 armors versus 6, this would be fun. Looking through the room Gunther saw his fellow comrades for this one. He probably was the oldest person in the room, as well as the one with the lightest mech. The most firepower lay with the twenty-something year old. He ordered the group to place a marker on the nearest vantage point. Take a look at the balls on that kid... Well at least it was certain he needed to compensate for other parts in that region with a cannon like that, Gunther thought. "Sure, kid, willdo." the German said, no need to argument with youths I guess. Gunther stood up and placed the marker on a ridge overlooking the ambush terrain. The ridge was tall enough to give a good view of the surroundings, but not that high that it could be nuisance if they needed him in the thick of battle. "This is arguably the best place for a sniper to stand. Heard you were more of a destroy everything in your way type of guy, that right?" the Wasp pilot yelled to the young man who was now climbing his mech.

The Asian said he was more of a support type, he could assist and even bring around airstrikes. Those airstrikes could certainly help, maybe if he opened the fight with bombing those 28 junkheaps to hell. If the kid could then bust out the cannon and shoot a couple of them, that left the moping up. "Not to bust any of your balls, but is talking strategy not about getting the safest plan of approach and not just listing what you're going to do?" Gunther said, after the Asian was done talking. "I'm good at creating chaos and breaking ranks. This will neither help the sniper or the bomber, so can't we just round them up and take them out a few at a time? If we keep a tight helm and punish their mistakes with either death from above or regular gunfire? Just tell me what you need me to do."

There was one problem with this group and it was that their greatest strength could also become their greatest weakness. There was a lot of diversity, almost too much, if they just went out and shoot the guys that would result in armor damage, maybe lots of wasted bullets, and Gunther wasn't going to pay for someone else's fuck ups. Gunther knew that without backup or support he would be blown to pieces, no matter how fast his mech was. The man just hoped that everyone would settle down and talk in stead of just doing their thing.

Taylor leaned against the wall while listening to the briefing. Ordinarily, this kind of job just wasn't what Taylor would take, going out to lead an offensive against some self-proclaimed freedom fighters, but the market for escort and private security was getting a little thin lately and she needed the money. When the dossier detailing the enemy frames was tossed out onto the table, Taylor leaned her head to get a look. She'd encountered something of this capability only a handful of times before; the kind of bandits she'd run into in her line of work rarely could even afford something like that second-rate kind of frame. There was a taciturn, blank stare on Taylor's face all the while, if she was thinking anything at the moment no one was going to be able to guess it just by looking at her.

When Ryder dismissed them to discuss among themselves, Taylor pushed off against the wall and straightened herself up. She tied her belt a little more tightly, as it had come loose and allowed the front of her flight suit to open, revealing the receiver of an unusually large pistol and the handle of a knife tucked inside of each side of her suit's torso, both last-ditch weapons in case her frame was disabled. She cinched the belt shut, closing the opening of her suit as she wandered towards the rest of her new teammates. Everyone seemed to be picking out roles that they felt they were able to serve best. Alexander appeared to want to take on a long-range role, and Taylor felt maybe that might be where she herself should begin.

"During the initial assault, I think I'll support him," Taylor briefly paused to gesture towards Alexander, "Then I'll move in to engage at close range once the battle is underway, but I'll need to link up with someone, I'm not exactly keen on trying to fight on my own."

She put her hands into her pockets, leaning her head to look across at Gunther, "You, Gunther's your name, right? If you have no objections I'll join you once the first salvo has been fired."

Ryan leaned back against a wall lackadaisically, feigning apathy as they were all briefed by Ryder. The designs the enemy frames appeared to indicate a weak point on the upper back region. And the weapons they toted implied a limited range, but despite their lack of firepower the enemies' sheer number concerned Ryan. That is, until she took a peek at her teammates' CVFs. They were all pretty nice, some really nice. She questioned why some of these people even need this job if they could afford such high-end frames. Ryan's clunker is barley running and after this payday she was gonna get a heap of new parts.

As the others discussed strategy, Ryan felt a bit more optimistic about the odds. With the heat these guys are packing, she may not even need to fire a single shot. "It goes without saying, but if we're gonna hit them at night I suggest we play it quiet. Set up, wait for an opportunity, then hit 'em with everything we got all at once. No use in drawing out the fight. That is, if you can play it quiet." As she said so, she eyed some of the big fancy frames. Not exactly subtle, the enemy may detect them long before they could get the jump on them. Ryan's role would probably be best somewhere mid to close range. But she had no idea how trigger-happy some of these guys were, and she sure as hell doesn't want to be caught in friendly-fire. "I'll position myself west of the ridge, so don't be firing in that direction. I'll only move in close once snipers and CAS (close air support) give the signal. But if all goes well, we shouldn't need to get that close."

Alexander looked down from where he was, one of the plates now resting above him as he was fixing something inside the arm of his mech. "Ok, well a quick run down, I can take fire from anything short of a full anti-frame cannon at point blank without any damage at all to my frame. I excel at long range combat to the point at which I can obliterate a city gate from over 50 miles away." he knew it was a over exaggeration but it didn't hurt to scare the others a little. "as for close combat." he paused to attach something inside the mech's arm. "I've got a 300m range ion machine gun, a Directional shield projector and a back up weapon that I'd rather not disclose" he pulled the plate back down. "I'm slow as it comes though, so if you guys are in need of something to balwalk them against, give me a heads up and drive them towards me which'll give me time to prep up." he then paused. "Oh and due to my mech's dual mount configuration my Ion cannon can fold up giving me a hand free to steal dropped weapons such as blades or small guns, but only for as long as the internal charge lasts" he then lauged at Ryder and nodded. "Yeah, I am, which is why I haven't told you about the overcharge yet." he grinned and then finished fixing the plate back to his mech he swung himself down and dropped back among the group. "as for stealth, the Destroyer was built for busting stuff up. stealth isn't really my strong suit, however...." he looked at the map and moved his marker round on to a hill a little further back and out of the direct line of approach. "if we sacrifice my direct roll in the battle to put me here, I can get in position at any time and act as a spotter, keep everyone posted on what's going on."

Angus didn't know what to think when he had first been invited to join this mission and knew even less when he was brought in with such heavy hitters like "The Destroyer" , "Judgement", or "The Wasp". Their stories were legends to him and yet here they were all packed together and he was getting the chance to work with them. Most of Ryder's briefing stuck with him while he was a little star struck by these icons in the CVF merc business. Then came the planning and his days as a bandit reminded him of something that worked well when widely out numbered while retaining the advantage of superior fire power.

"What if we didn't have Judgement as air support?" Bosco inquired, finally ready(able) to speak infront of his betters "So if Destroyer and Jackal mount up at maybe... these two positions" Bosco gestured to 2 vantage points on the northern ridge "While the Argon and my J9 would be in waiting in the east and Wasp and Judgement waiting the west. We'd draw the fighters as close to the decoy as we could before they discover it's a trap. Then the western team would attack them, drawing their fire toward us and leaving their back and flank open to a quick assault from judgement and wasp and our sniper team. The eastern team would then pull back and then assault them again and again.... A repeated assault from the eastern team would break them until it were ever man for himself." A sudden realization occurred that if he wasn't working with the grain when it came to some of these people then he may never even get the chance of seeing them again, but that was all based on how they felt about his ideas and if they appreciated his input or not. He worried most about Simon and how he had suggested taking him out of the air where he had made his career... he argued internally on if he should take back what he said and apologize but that would make him look weak, now was no place for weakness and he hoped that these more experienced pilots would understand.

A dossier of Ryder was left on the clipboard for the 6 pilots all to see. He probably wanted to put them at ease by letting them get a brief overiview of his background, just like the last folder it came with a picture.


Name: James Andrew Ryder
Age: 38
Height: 5'10
Weight: 171 ilbs
Class: Drifiter
Bio: Ryder is a pilot based in Texas, he currently runs his own garage.

I look very youthful in that picture dont you think? sorry I didnt let you read the autobiography, there really isnt that much to say about me!
Ryder got back to his Frame and checked his watch after taking a final drag of his cigar.

Yall have got 20 mins left, hope you guys have some sort of tactic, these 'freedom fighters' maybe trash pilots in trashier Frames, but they still heavily out number you, if you get caught on the wrong side of a firing squad, youll be picking up bounty reward through life insurance.

"I agree drawing them off in small segments would work, but that is if they follow us in singles, what if all of them go after one group? or what if they all stay put? we've lost most of our advantages. why not just put a big bomb in there?" he said and laughed "t minus twenty, got it." he said picking the disk up and shoving it in his pocket. "I need to run pre-launch checks. the ion cannon isn't a trivial thing to prep for combat." he jumped back up to his Frame, clambering up to the head he reached round and touched a command plate behind one of the larger armour panels, the slots folding back as he jumped in and started to run checks.

"Do what you want, but I'm not gonna draw fire towards myself if I can help it" Ryan said in response to Angus's plan. It isn't a bad plan, but she isn't gonna put herself in the line of fire for pilots she only just met. Stepping over to her frame she started doing a quick walk around, making sure everything is good to go. "I say, if anyone, blondie (Alexander) there takes the aggro. That is, if his frame is really as tough as he claims." She didn't doubt the Destroyer's armor, which is why she'd rather it take most of the enemy fire. "Other than that, your plan sounds good. One team from the east, one from the west, like a pincer attack." As she said so, Ryan continued to prep for the battle. The Argon mostly packed standard rounds, but had a mag of AP rounds just in case.

"Hmm," Taylor moved closer to the table. Upon Ryder's comment she took a quick, cursory glance at the dossier poking ou from a pile of documents in the corner of the table. She wondered for a brief moment how Ryder managed to find a photographer, but was more preoccupied with the plan they were going over. By now a general consensus was being arrived at, she and the big hitter were going to provide long-range support, with two teams attacking from opposite sides. She commented, "Divide and conquer, huh?"

She shifted her weight, tucking one arm under the other, and gesturing with her hand, "If you want to go with a pincer strategy, then let's focus our initial attack on the middle of the enemy formation, that would force them to scatter."

Taylor took brief note of the location on the map where it was asked that she support the others from, especially taking note of the distance between the roads and her marked perch, as well as the elevations. She returned to her frame, which had been lowered onto one knee just beside the other frames, and pressed a button on a hidden remote in her suit. The frame briefly let out a low, metallic groan as it shifted, leaning forwards to open the cockpit. She climbed up the thigh of her Jackal, retrieving from the cockpit a small bound book, some blank pieces of paper, and a pencil.

Taylor not long thereafter returned with the pencil clutched between her teeth, and dropped the book onto the table. It spilled open, revealing that every page of the book was filled with ballistic data and trajectories, most muzzle velocities, slug weights, elevations, and angles of attack were accounted for, an artilleryman's cheat sheet. Taylor ran some quick math, and looked over the roads, before tapping a certain spot on the map, a small section of road that ran through a low point, "Here, look right here. This is a choke point, trees on one side of the road, steep inclines on the other; very little room for their frames to maneuver. If those guys want to get through to reach the bait facility, they have to pass through this section of road. If we're going to follow Angus's plan, then this pass is where I think we would have the best success if we attack."

Both Taylor and Ryan brought up good points, combining their plans and their frames would defiantly "Alright so we split the sniper team, putting Destroyer on the west team and the Jackal on the east time. We do the same thing as if we were at the decoy where the west team will aggro and the east team will do fly-bys and quick attacks before pulling back. We'd compact them in that narrow spot so that the Frames in the middle couldn't open fire until their comrades in front were downed... and if we're lucky those who do break off will just go to the facility trying to get a piece of the booty..." Angus looked around "people still say booty, right?"

Angus wanted this plan to work, he helped with it considerably and it would earn him a spot to fight with these pilots again given the chance.

"So will this work for everyone? Or does it need changes... cause I think we are running out of time if those changes need to be made."

Okay ROLL OUT, its time to launch, you gotta get going while I shut down everything in my garage, report to the zone that I told you after you kill those chumps,.I wont wish you luck because its stupid, fair travels!
Ryder spat out what was left of his cigar and began turning off the lights as the pilots got into their frames, the slow but hum of the machines started to whir up as the garage door opened and the flood of orange light covered the hangar from the light of the setting sun in the southern wastelands. All 6 of the frames took off at roughly the same speed, as to acommodate the slower CVFs, but they would be at the destination soon.

**************************************************************************************************************

At the Ethus silo, 26 very pissed off pilots began to snarl obcenities at the lack of valuables at the abandoned plant. There was no Ethus, the place had been stripped bare, the place was a network of oil rig steel frames and huge empty silos and crates, surrounding huge piles of scrap metal.
They were all in their frames in standby mode while they tried to make sense of the situation
Pilot 22: Where in the crap is all the Ethus? Did we get bad information again?
Pilot 20: I doubt it, you know what texas is like, another low down group of assholes could have taken it a couple hours ago
Pilot 13: Well lets make use of the shit thats here, scrap metal can catch a decent sum if we sell it in Utah
Pilot 21: yeah thats a great idea, lets drop all 28 of our weapons so we can lug massive handfulls of scrap to the midwest, makes me wonder why YOU aren't the leader!
Pilot 2: The boss isnt around right now, so all you answer to me, and I say we keep fucking looking, Ethus can be hard to find when it crystallises but its still very valuable.
Pilot 4: Crystals? I thought Ethus was like electricity
Pilot 20: Funny how you all have so much knowledge on Ethus but cant find any.

The pilots continued to bicker as the 6 pilots drew nearer, they were about 10 mins away...

Angus could see the tracks on the road as they made it to their ambush zone, they had arrived too late and the "Thirty" had already come through this pass...

"They've already passed through here" Angus said over their comm frequency "but they haven't come back this way. That mean we should head to the facility and try to take them there or wait for them here and see if they come back?"

They had a plan set up for the facility already, but coming in late could put them at a disadvantage if their approach wasn't done carefully enough. Something else that bothering him were the tracks leading to the facility, they only told Angus that the group was made up of the same CVF and numbering between 20 and 40. This could mean that another gang found the decoy and the Thirty hadn't arrived YET, and there was no getting out of that big of a fire fight...While this was a possibility, it was a very small chance another group had 20 frames let alone 40. The Thirty seemed like an exception to the wasteland rules he had grown up on, where gangs only ran in groups of 6 to save on Ethus.

"Time already," Taylor hummed, she snapped her book shut and picked up her belongings, returning to her CVF. Climbing up the thigh of her frame and into the cockpit of her frame. The torso of the frame was so narrow that the traditional seat of most CVFs just wouldn't fit in the design, she instead had to strap herself into a vertical harness. With the harness secure, she locked the canopy shut and started the frame, the machine letting out a metallic groan as it lumbered into an upright position. Taylor moved the Jackal into formation with the rest of her team.

---

By the time the group had arrived, it appeared that they had been mere moments too late. The enemy frames had already reached the bait.

"Damn, they already got through," Taylor radioed back, "We still have the element of surprise on our side. At the very least we need to get clear of the pass ourselves, this isn't an ideal place to start the fight."

With the enemy just ahead, Taylor tapped on the console to arm her weapon's railcannon. The screen suddenly presented a password prompt. Taylor typed out on a keyboard tucked into the console to her right, entering: VELOCITAS_ERADICO.

The HUD immediately responded, text scrolling over the screen.

PASSWORD ACCEPTED
RAILCANNON SAFETY DISENGAGED
POWER SUPPLY CONFIRMED
PLASMA ARMATURE ACTIVE
ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
CAUTION - WEAPON IS LIVE

LOADING BALLISTIC CONFIGURATION...

CONFIG FILE LOADED
PROJECTILE TYPE: TUNGSTEN PENETRATOR
PROJECTILE MASS: 15 KG
MUZZLE VELOCITY: 1700 M/S

The railcannon mounted on the Jackal-5's back suddenly shifted downwards, unlocking from the backpack. The frame reached down and behind itself to grasp the weapon's carry handle, maneuvering the hefty weapon in front of the frame. The long barrel folded out from under the receiver, locking firmly against the reveiver with a dull clack. Finally, the frame reached behind itself to draw a single, tungsten slug from the magazine attached to the backpack. Racking the weapon's large, sturdy bolt backwards, the Jackal slid the slug into the weapon's chamber, locking the bolt shut after.

"Argon, let's go!" Ryan shouted up at her CVF. On her voice command the frame lowered it's hand and lifted her up into the cockpit. A faint flicker of light flashed a moment before the screens came of life. "Welcome back, Pilot" a generic robotic female voice chimed. As the team slowly trekked out Ryan flipped a switch activating the Argon's ECON MODE. Simply put, it is a mode designed to save energy for especially long trips. But it also has the added benefit of lessening the frame's heat signature and muffling the hum of the engine, convenient for a slow stealthy approach. As their targets came into view, Ryan dropped her frame into a hull-down position. The Argon's dark camouflage patterned paint melted into the darkness of the night, concealing the frame effectively. Only the left shoulder of the Argon stuck out a little, where a posing pin-up girl was painted with the words "Miss Behavin'" in cursive underneath.

"I count 15... 20 plus. Keep an eye out for scouts." As Taylor loaded her gun Ryan gave herself a comfortable distance from the group, which would look like a big glowing target on thermal vision.

SAFETY DISENGAGED
SUPPRESSOR ENGAGED

The Argon's robotic voice again alerted Ryan of pertinent information. "Alright, let's stick to the pincer formation" she whispered into the mic, despite being far enough away from enemy to shout. Smoothly and steadily, Ryan moved her frame westward using a low-crouching stance. Slowly she crept closer to the group of enemies until the closest frame was just within her range. The Argon's auto-targeting wasn't sufficient at this range, so she switched it into full manual and ignored predicted trajectory. "Ok, I'm in position. Hurry up and get setup." Her finger hovered over the trigger, eyes glued on the enemy movement. If any of them moved an inch closer to her, she was ready to either open fire or better yet back off.

J9's chest opened up, exposing the numerous canisters of chemspray Angus had collected through his warfare. Angus loaded a acid canister into his SMG as he kept up with the others, watching his moniters for the first sign of trouble. 'I count 15... 20 plus. Keep an eye out for scouts' Ryan commed, Argon had already split up and gone dark.

As they closed in Angus made his own count, 26, no scouts, they were all inactive... they needed to act now. "I count 26 and i'm calling an audible. I need the Destroyer, Argon and Jackal to stand your ground here, Judgement and Wasp are to come with me. Argon's team will need to open fire on my signal, anything after that is your own choice. My team will make it look like we are rushing the Thirty only so we can get past and cause a little chaos on the way." Judgement and Wasp were very fast and prized themselves on fly-by attacks, there was little risk having them do the same thing here... the risk was in his own Frame as J9 wasn't nearly as fast, nor was it strong enough to brush off a wall of bullets. Argus was putting his chips all on hoping he could get past the group before they went active again. "Anyone object, cause we're running out of time."