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Max's words replayed in Leslie's head as she suited up for combat. She had seen his name before, somewhere in all the meetings and dinners her parents had helped host but he himself drew a blank beyond one of the flashcards that her tutors had used to make sure she knew everyone at a party. But given his vote of confidence, that's what she was going to call it, she was more than mentally ready. Some performance jitters, for sure, but after a year of simulations and drills it was nearly showtime

She splashed down with little incident. Just a bit of kelp covering the windshield that was quickly wiped off. It didn't elude her that she was partnered up with the heavy weapons carrier in the squad, and sent to deal with the biggest threat to their safety.

She had gone over the briefing in her head on the flight over. The sight of the cruise missiles impacting was something to behold, and reminded her of their advantages here. They would be in their GEARS, which was always a big plus. They would have the sensors and such to help them see while also having the biggest guns on the island. Their element of surprise would be backed up by their speed, which would help negate any sort of response the defenders would be able to muster. That speed would be key to keeping the initiative. Ideally, she and Fion would end up securing a garage full of empty vehicles, or even a smoking crater. But, failing that, it sounded like they were facing an organized, if amateur fighting force.

“Sobero, we have limited time before the enemy recovers. I suggest we go through the forest; we can rush through some cover to the hanger before we are forced into the open and take advantage of the chaos they'll be in. From there we can decide how to make the approach depending on what is still standing. If you're ready, let's get a move on, unless you have a better path.”

"I agree, straight through the forest to avoid any potential dug in positions. Come out of the woods and ideally catch them still getting everything moving, She said, raising her rifle, checking it had a bullet chambered, and advanced into the forest with the others.

“Alright, Let’s get a move on while they are still in disarray. I’ll lead the way and watch the front, you keep an eye out for anyone sneaking behind us.”

Fionn replied before breaking into a sprint through the thick vegetation of the forest. The density of the trees was enough to obscure vision from the outside, but not so much as to make travel difficult for the large frames of the GEARS, at least till they got closer to the hanger.

"Somachain, Sobero, me and Sprinstream have overwatch, we are on your right hand side. I can't see any significant thermal signatures from here in the forest in front of you, but that doesn't mean there isn't anyone, or anything waiting for you down there that's hiding. We'll be out of view when we're closer to the comms facility, but we can get back in range when you need fire support and designation from us."

“Copy that," replied Fion. "You stick to your part for the time being, if anyone is dumb enough to get within mauling range of me in the woods, they will get a few seconds to regret it. Outside of the forest I think that, between me and Sobero, we have enough explosives to tell whatever is there to fuck off.”
It was only a few minutes pace in the gradually shrinking forest before they got in sight of their goal. Two hangers stood facing each other before a dirt runway about 300 meters out. The one on the left took the brunt of the missile strike with most of the roof collapsed and a fire raging on the inside, likely whatever was in there is destroyed. The other hanger fared better, however, with the only problem being some debris blocking part of the entrance. Outside the hanger lay flat terrain marred by the metal remains of the first hanger creating cover of debris and deep impacts within the ground. There is a set of three small rectangular buildings behind the hangars that likely are external storage or barracks.

Other than the structures, Fionn counted two light tracked vehicles patrolling the road and a handful of infantry trying to salvage from the devastation. ‘A light defense. They must not have thought it likely to be assaulted so quickly… or the cruise missiles landed in the right spots.’ Fionn thought to himself.

Quickly devising a plan of action, Fionn told it to Leslie.

“Those IFVs are going to be a problem. I don’t think I can kill the crew from this range, but I definitely can ruin those tracks, make it harder for them to go anywhere while you take ‘em out with your rockets. They’ll be faster than my mortars. Then I’m thinking I smoke just in front of where the rest of them are in suppress them with my autocannon while you sneak around and flank the side, we mop up what’s left and figure out and go from there. Sound like a plan?”

"I got the thermal sight which should help with the targeting, and I think if you draw their fire I can get close enough my rifle will be more than enough to get through their armor." Leslie brought her attention back to to the IFV's, bringing her own rifle to the ready. "On you."

“One….Two…Three….Four….Three….Two…Three…Four…” Fionn began counting. Each second up sends a dozen and a half rounds of screaming lead. Each second down gives the barrel time to cool off. For a gun to fire upwards of a thousand rounds a minute, it tends to heat up very fast. If it gets too hot, the barrel tends to break. After enough time spent using the weapon, learning what it can and cannot do, Fionn learned how far he can push his luck.

The downside about the autocannon is the poor accuracy of it. The upside of it is the fire rate…and the poor accuracy of it. With a veil of smoke blocking his vision of the enemy, it can be tricky to aim for them, but with the spread and rate of fire, all he has to do is sweep one area at a time and he will is bound to hit something. If he were to fire 3000 rounds and only have an accuracy of 10%, that is 300 new holes made in something.

Hitting things, however, is not all it is good for. Each burst of fire sends dozens of bullets in a given direction making dozens of impacts. Hearing or seeing it tends to make one panic, and rush to cover. Distracting them, their thoughts preoccupied with not getting hit. It was this purpose he was fulfilling, giving Leslie time to move unimpeded, unnoticed. Time to act, to strike with the surgical precision that is the anti-thesis to his sporadic and indirect fire.

An audible explosion and about 400 rounds later, the firefight came to an end.

Leslie used some trees to take cover from the incoming autocannon, Keeping her shoulder pauldron facing the direction of fire. Thankfully the bear's fire drew enough attention off her The engines of the enemies made them easy targets for her sights, and as she moved from crater to crater only a few of the dismounted soldiers running out of the concealing smoke noticed her. By then it was too late. Her head mounted machine guns made quick work of them, a quick glance was all that was needed to eliminate them.

With the smoke, foxholes, and covering fire, her advance to flank the IFV's went smoothly until the end. The IFV closest to her barely had time to swing its turret in time to get off a shot that whizzed over her head, and a quick burst along the turret hit the ammunition stores, causing the entire thing to go up in smoke. However the second IFV had finally noticed her, and started to limp away from the fight and out of the smoke. "Shit it spotted me," she said to Fion. As the turret swung turret towards her, she put her shield forward just in time to feel the thud as autocannon rounds slammed into her. The short burst was enough to rattle her bones, but with a shout she quickly returned fire, emptying the rest of her clip into the side of the vehicle until it stopped firing. By the time she was done she could see clear through it.

Swearing under her breath, she called back to Fion. "Both IFV's Down, I took a hit but I think I'm alright," she said. Ducking into a deep crater , she took the time to reload a fresh magazine into her rifle. Then she looked around as the smoke cleared up, and brought her rifle up. "Okay, I got you covered, you can move up now."

With the smoke cleared, Fionn took a moment to scan the area before joining Leslie in cover.

“Good to hear, and looks like the shield did it’s job.” Fionn said pointing to the visible dents. “We survived this round, let’s keep that streak going.” Fionn briefly looked out of cover, taking linger after not seeing anyone. “I think that’s everyone out here so I guess we deal with the hanger now. If there is anyone in there, they know we are here now and they might be mad so, if you don’t mind me making the plan again, I say we riddle it with bullets and explosions.”

Leslie nodded. “Sounds like a plan, but I don't have as much heavy weaponry as you do. I can take out individual targets well enough but you're the saturation fire guy.”

Rishun and Max
A Collab with @Esailia

The scene that was emerging in front was becoming clearer, as the 30-mil wielding mechanised marksman saw what Rishun herself couldn't understand. It was a hell of a piece of work the otter had accomplished, but even Max could see the fear through all the layers of metal and composite armour, it was....well, a shock to her. But it happened. The lucky thing about a GEAR, Max reminded himself, was that while the damage you caused was far more destructive, there usually wasn't anything left afterward or you didn't have as physical connection to the chaos you just raised. It felt perhaps more....disconnected than anything else to what you had, like it dehumanised it all. Through a thermal imaging optic, the enemy on the other side didn't look as scary. And as existentially terrifying as that was, Max guessed Rishun had probably felt what it was like to feel recoil that would irreversibly change someone's life for far worse, and necessary as it was, it was a new experience.

Moving up the hillslope, Max joined her at the crest of the hill, scanning around for any other threats beyond the ones left that she'd blasted apart.

Rishun blinked slowly, her mind racing to figure out how she got there as she flicked her finger onto Max's video feed at the same time calling on the comms "Raoka'dieachuwaz'ounka... Ney'sien'Max."

The lion didn't entirely understand her garbled accent, but it seemed almost panicked, perhaps switching to her native dialect in a panic of sorts. The lion knew that he couldn't be too harsh, well, not when she'd managed to go guns blazing like this, tearing this site apart. It was fluid, almost as if she was in harmony with the machine, but Max guessed she was probably taking in what was going on now.

"Sorry...what'd you mean, Rishun? You did a hell of a number here...just relax, take a breather. You did well under fire….just take a minute." Max asked, his comms coming through clean as he scanned the area around, swinging the 30mm rifle as he took a look at the comms post, one of the cabins blasted apart by fire and pretty much derelict, as the other stood there alongside a small radar bubble. The other cabin was intact, in fact, it was completely fine, compared to the rest of the fixtures and walls of the comms post which had been torn apart. The Lion Rampant scanned the horizon, Max aware that while they might have cleaned out the most immediate threat here, there could still be more who picked up the recent firefight here.
Rishun had stopped herself from jerking her GEAR around fully to face Max at the sound of his voice, and what he said made her recall a moment in her bootcamp "Yessir, breathing and relaxing, having a martini on the beach...I said I had no more enemy signs of life."
The lion silently affirmed Rishun’s comment, glad at least she was back to a more common tongue. Or it was just Rishun being Rishun. Either way, the lion had another suggestion on his mind.

"Think we should go have a peek inside that cabin, on foot? There might still be someone hiding in there, or a network we can look at quickly before we head on down. After all, we're here for intel and we might have a moment before we can join the others down the hill." Max asked, aiming to get Rishun thinking about something else, namely her technical expertise.
Max wasn't an expert with people, but if there was one thing he knew about shock was that keeping someone's mind away from dwelling on all of this too much and pushing forward was better than stopping and coming to a halt. The reconnaissance operative waited, looking across through his GEAR's optics to Rishun's Aqua Goddess.

"Sounds good. Might be nice to stretch my tail, Sir." She replied with a light tremor. She checked that her GEAR would continue to feed jamming signals in her absence, then pushed her manual exit button, setting in motion a series of locks on the front hatch before it slowly swung open, breaking the seal it had. She climbed down slowly and gingerly, making certain to avoid bloodstains on her GEAR's legs. She quickly skittered around to her personal compartments in the backs. She grabbed her drone pack from one leg, double checking the wireless charge was working, then moving over to the other leg to strap on her modified pistol with blunt bullets, as well as an extra battery for her stun baton, which she slipped into its loop on her belt. Finally she grabbed the omni-tool she had custom made just for helping her access hackable things.

The lion followed suit with his own GEAR, dropping gently out of his GEAR and drawing his pistol with one hand, whilst heading to his GEAR’s leg to grab his weapons stash. Opening the store, he drew his M23 once again, putting his pistol away with a smooth motion as a magazine entered the designated marksman rifle, with a solid but sturdy click. He also took his charges, just in case they had to detonate anything inside, leaving about half of the spare rifle ammunition inside. The side-mounted holographic optic on the M23 came to life, as Max looked across to the cabin, then to Rishun.

The Otter, now strapped with her gear and hands free, slid a pair of simple gloves on and bounded across the short distance to follow behind Max, acutely aware her survival now depended on how close she stuck with the lion.

“Nothing quite like getting some fresh air.” Max replied cooly, to which Rishun nodded in response, the operatives tactically moving across the muddy hilltop of the comms post and past the burning wreck of his handiwork, and from there to the side of the destroyed cabin. Max’s UAV hadn’t pinged any new movement in their close proximity, so for the very least there wasn’t anyone in the open to worry about. Rifle in gloved paw, the lion clutched it tightly by the foregrip, turning the corner of the destroyed cabin with an observant gaze, Rishun sticking to his six. He didn’t have his NVGs down, not at the moment given the fire from the IFV nearby, but he had them sitting atop his helmet, ready to go.

“On my lead, Rishun. Weapons ready, keep your eyes peeled.” Max sounded stoic through their personal comms- gone was the relaxed and rebellious lion and here out of his GEAR was someone altogether different, aware that there wasn’t a layer of armour between him and the outside world anymore, but his reactions, reflexes and capabilities. The lion towered over the otter as he stood tall, but it wouldn’t count for much in a close-quarters environment- a bullet was a bullet, no matter how big you were and Max knew disembarking was always a risk, as he led the two towards the cabin, weapon raised, tilted to 45 degrees and ready to fire on anyone who might emerge.

Rishun pulled her pistol from its holster yet still hobbled on three paws, wanting to stay low while keeping her potential speed high. Her brain was still pumping out the signal for adrenaline, and her senses were riding high in that moment. She kept glancing all around them as they neared the building, more jittery than a jute box.

The lion slowed as he approached the building’s side, the main building of the comms post clearly battered not just by the fact it was assaulted by a pair of GEARs, but by just the erosion from rain and time itself. It felt dated, old and neglected, but nonetheless, a functioning building for running the towers that were located adjacent on the hill. With a push against the side, Max looked back to Rishun, making sure she was still close. He just hoped this wasn’t too hairy, that they wouldn’t run into five people around this door- part of him was ready to expect anything, so if that was how it was going to go down, that would be what they got today. Still, it was so far, so good, Max thought to himself. Before he moved any further, he switched on the flashlight on his rifle, the laser-light module emitting a powerful light from the underside of the DMR by the foregrip, utterly blinding if looked at directly. And well, something Max preferred in close quarters.

Rishun watched him turn his barrel light on, and she shivered. Something about breaching an unknown, dark, enemy building without backup or much plan didn't sit well with her. This felt akin to a horror movie… she was going to get a flashlight attachment for her pistol after this mission.

Pushing the door open, Max gave a hand signal, that of “Move!” towards the left hand side of the door, Max pushing against the door and sweeping his flank while Rishun swept hers with her pistol. It was clear on initial inspection, the computer terminal on the far side not manned.

"Clear." Rishun called after checking her side and confirming there were no doors or open windows, her eyes falling on the console practically calling for her.

“Clear here.” Max commented through the comms, the lion still sweeping his corners, walking over papers and the general mess that had been created here, thinking just how rushed it all felt. It seemed rather strange that it was unmanned, but even so, the mess here said someone had gone through here recently, despite the poor visibility Max had in the dark.

Well, that was at least until he went closer towards the main communication console and saw the shadow of a flickering tail underneath a computer desk, making out something there. He pointed his rifle at the underside of the desk, the light beaming down at the unsuspecting cat, the petrified look not one masked by the dark. Max was looking for a weapon on the technician’s person through his optic, his own finger gripped tightly around the trigger, ready to end this poor sod in a second. It would be easy, quick even, the safest option to do. But Max was faster than that. And not as cold as that, even if he very easily could have been.

Max charged forward, the lion roaring in a manner that Rishun likely hadn’t heard and dragged the technician out from under the desk with his paw and pinned him to the floor with his boot head facing up, faster than could be reacted to by words alone. Despite his size, the lion was fast to react and move, quicker than the cat could be in trying to bring Max down to the floor by grabbing Max’s leg. As a result of his fast reactions, Max had his foot right against the cat’s right shoulder and jammed it down hard, looking down and seeing no knives or pistols on the black cat…. which at least was a relief.

Still, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind- this wasn’t someone innocent who had ended up here, not with the ROE that they had been given. He made it seem effortless as the cat scratched and tried to kick out, but Max’s foot was on him like a piece of lead, trapping him down still. He wasn’t going anywhere, not without Max’s foot going places.

Rishun jumped at the roar, having no prior warning as Max engaged the unknown opponent. She quickly rushed into his room and aimed at the scuffle, ready to lend a bullet to Max's aid. A person was in here this whole time and they didnt know… seeing he had the enemy handled, she moved around the two rooms again to double check for hostiles more thoroughly, finally calling "Clear." Again, before looking back to Max, holding her pistol back on the cat.

“Fucking ‘ell. We’ve got a live one.” Max said, shaking his head as he looked back at Rishun, knowing full well she’d witnessed it all. He looked back at the terrified cat, the silenced marksman rifle with a beaming light still pointed square at his top half.

“Give me a reason not to put a bullet in your head…..and you better make it quick.” The lion coldly said, Max devoid of emotion in that moment, apart from the overriding one that he’d missed this poor bastard here and could have risked Rishun. And well, everyone in that room had felt his roar right there, right then.
"I-I'm just a code monkey! I d-don't shoot Anyone! Please don't h-h-hurt me! I c-can help you, w-what do y-you want? I w-will do anyt-thing!" The cat stuttered out, and the pair of pilots would be hard pressed to determine if it was because of being threatened or a stutter from birth.

Max sighed, lowering the rifle’s gaze from the cat’s eyes which were fully open to Max’s foot, at least not blinding him as much. Max could only guess as much that the techie was utterly shitscared, but again, he was in a place he really, really shouldn’t have been.
“Well, that is useful to hear. Glad to hear you’re gonna cooperate.. I’ll sort out this fella. Rishun, get us some lighting.” Max said, his tone not changing still but now at least quieter than it was before. With a gentle release, the lion scooped his foot under the cat’s side and pushed him over, throwing his knee onto his lower back and bringing his hands together, M23 now stowed on Max’s side. Taking zip-tie from his plate carrier, he swiftly tied the cat’s hands, keeping him down against the floor.
“What’s your name, matey? And tell me, how aren’t you dead right now?”

Rishun nodded and looked around the walls for a switch or some sort of breaker. As she did, their prisoner talked "M-my name is Elias. I've b-been a technician all my life. When I was told I could help my country with my skills, I didn't question it...I wish I did now."

Max’s stare changed, when he heard that, no longer pressing against Elias’s back as he took a knee by his side. Country? He was clearly panicking, but Max knew better than to push for information relentlessly. He wasn’t completely cold, but knew he had to push the cat a little now for the comms post at least. At the very least, to get that sorted and deal with the other aspects later. No doubt with some proper interrogation he’d spill all the beans.

“No doubt about it. Alright, so here’s how it’ll work. I need you to tell my friend over there the state of the jamming network, and the comms here, as it sounds like you work on it. Right now, it sounds like your best shot at not joining your friends outside.” Max said, cold as ever, as he knelt down, the cat nodding as he looked over to the otter, the only person Elias could assume Max was talking about.
“Alright, alright….it’s….it’s a simple array! All based here. It’s stopping everything going out, second-tier encryption. There’s an additional layer for our comms channel, that’s all I know, honest!. Please, don’t hurt me….I don’t know anything, my commanding officer just told us to come here, I’m begging you, I don’t want this…” The cat begged, as Max looked across, seeing Rishun get to work.

The Otter flicked a switch she found flat against a wall, the four lights on the ceiling flickering to life. With that task done, she looked over her shoulder, calling "Scrap, shoulder." And the little mechanical squirrel climbed up a moment later. She brought her pebble up and shook it a few times, activating the screen and wirelessly connecting to Scrap. She set up a live feed between the squirrel and both their helmets, then sent some orders wirelessly to scrap. She walked over to where the prisoner was, allowing the metal critter to climb down her arm to settle in front of Elias, Scrap's little head and eyes watching his every jitter. She spoke as she worked all this out on her pebble "All I need to know from you is if you built the system. Said you have been a techie all your life, I don't want to get locked out because you're duping us…"

Max looked back at Elias, the cat swallowing a lump in his throat, the fatigues hard to make out now the lights were on inside the cabin. The walls were all insulated he could now see, with no windows that faced outside. The cat was still terrified, even if Max’s silenced DMR wasn’t in his face anymore, because now the cat understood just how intimidating the lion was.
“I’d answer her if I were you. Don’t fucking stutter.” Max barked, fully aware that if this was bad-cop, good cop with a captured techie, Max was certainly living up to the former.

“It’s not my system, it’s….I don’t know, I don’t get told anything. I think it might be Margothian, it’s all plug and play, simele stuff. I don’t know who gave it to us, that’s just the tech we’re using.” Elias winced, looking up at Max, and in a rare bit of courage, wanted his own back. Perhaps in curiosity more than anything, the shock subsiding to confusion.
”Who the hell even are you? What the fuck’s even going on….you can’t be ANL, can you?” Elias asked with a certain fearful curiosity.

Rishun smirked with her back to the techie. Not his system? She walked over to the console and sat, pulling out her omni-tool and pebble and setting them on the table's edge. The Otter got to work activating the console, flicking expertly through a few screens to get a feel for it. Nothing high tech, but it was smooth so definitely in-house somewhere. Margothian electro-bros focuses on chips and hardware. Did this guy think they were both jocks? "Let's see…" she mused, tapping her pebble awake and interfacing with the console after setting up a hefty firewall or three. Things checked out for communications handling. There wasn't anything fishy about the other fi- "Mm? What do we have here…?"

Max tutted, staring straight into the fellow feline’s eyes. “You seem to forget we’re the ones asking the questions, not you, Elias. Right now, I’d have bigger things to worry about. Like if I should cut my losses with you.” Max said, pushing his arm up against the cat’s throat as the cat began to almost yell in a muffled fashion with his throat pushed, before Max backed off. He was exhaling hard as he took his rifle back into hands again, leaving the cat against the side wall, limp, terrified and bound.

In times like this, Max understood that doing what he did in any civil court would have been considered close to a violation of the common rules of war. Yet he reminded himself, that was part and parcel in this world of theirs. If he didn’t do it, someone else would, or someone else would get hurt down the line. All impossible to see, a butterfly effect of sorts, but Max knew it was better that they got what they needed and at the very least, reduced the risk that his friends and fellow pilots would be going into. A lesser evil, and one Max just accepted. No doubt Silverwind had seen the same deal, and given how off-the-books this all was, the playbook was long gone.

“How’s it getting on? I hope he’s been truthful, for his sake.”

Rishun glanced up to the Scrap display for a moment, then refocused on the task at hand "Hope our new friend is still awake. Wanted to ask him about a few encrypted files I just f- crap!" She stopped herself, flicked at her pebble a few times, then grabbed her omni-tool and slipped under the console's lip to start power drilling a few screws out of the metal sheet.

In response, Max looked back at the cat, aware he was handling their new captive whilst Rishun was at work.
“Same again, Elias. What about the files?” Max asked, his UAV not pinging any movement into the comms post as of yet, as the lion looked back down at the captive cat. But this time Elias wasn't as forthcoming, now aware he had a counterpart in Rishun. To the two, the moment Rishun said 'encrypted files', the game was on.
"I don't know anything about encrypted files."

Rishun chuckled at that, pulling and tossing aside a piece of sheet metal "Yeah? How about the folder labeled 'transactions' filled with some unsavory erotic material I found? Unencrypted and with your 'electric fingerprints all over them?"

She yanked her drone case off her back and set it on her left, then pushed into the hole she made under the console, omni-tool in hand.

The black cat turned almost a bright red, as Max realised he didn’t even have to do a thing…..it was impressive. A level even he hadn’t really thought of, as the cat now was very keen to talk.
“Okay. okay, there’s some encrypted files. There’s nothing in them….okay, well there’s the keys for the comms validation. That’s it though!” Elias replied, as Max walked over, towering over.
“You sure about that?” Max asked,
“I mean….there’s some others in there. Code is 1234# to access any of them.” Elias added, sheepish as ever.
“You’re fucking joking. Try it, Rishun. Maybe he's speaking some sense.” Max couldn’t believe it for a second, and was very, very ready to kick the shit out of Elias if that was a lie, knowing just how utterly stupid it sounded. But nonetheless, he’d said it, repeated it, taking a punt Elias was terrified and it really was as dumb as it sounded. Max wasn’t just being stupid, yet he knew well...it sounded just that way…..

"Max, punch him in the jaw. That's a reference to an old satire movie!" Rishun said over their comm, splicing into a seemingly random wire. Elias gave a nervous chuckle as he looked up at Max, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

Max didn’t punch him in the jaw. That would have been easy, but when you have an enraged lion, easy stops being so easy. Max simply used the butt of his M23 instead, and slammed it into the side of the cat’s head, drawing blood and probably going much further than he should have. But as stupid as it was, Max wasn’t taking shit, as he roared at the cat, knowing it had certainly reminded him not to get on his bad side.
“You think you’re fucking funny?! Let’s see how fucking funny you are now, eh?!” Max could be heard from the other side of the room loud and clear, probably even a little outside as he yelled. There wasn’t anything beyond it- pure and unfiltered rage, yet Max had restrained himself from going any further against their captive.

Rishun had just pulled her body out of the hole, trailing a pair of wires with her and just in time to hear the crack of the rifle but into a skull. She whirled her gaze to their prisoner to see blood dripping down the cat's face "MAX! I still need him! Don't leave him unable to talk."

Looking back at Rishun, Max nodded, shrugging his shoulders and head as to what he’d done. Well, it wasn’t pretty, but then again….Max didn’t have what most would call a soft touch.
“He’ll think about it his words a bit more carefully next time. Cat’s got his tongue, Rishun. Don’t worry about that.” He simply replied, almost a little too stoically as to what he’d just done, probably as if it was just another day in the office for him.

The Otter hissed "Yienahiiek'raoka'Max. Just...Elias, I will make this simple: I don't care about getting into them right now. I will be isolating and transferring them off your server by physical line, bypassing any net security you have set up. They will not be stored on my pebble, and I will not tell you where. I do not NEED you to get into them. You need ME to save you from a life sentence of abetting terrorists." She pointed to him, adding "Blindfold him."

Max did as Rishun asked, taking a spare balaclava from his fatigues, turning it backwards and sliding it over the cat’s head, Max not afraid of the fact he was gonna have to spend more time getting his shit cleaned up after this. That was for later, right now, he wanted to keep the friendly techie happy and Elias out of sight, literally.

“Aye, Rishun. Let’s get this done and get out of here. It’s going to be hard to secure him, but he could have some very valuable information. ” Max replied, Standing tall once again, Max put hand to headset, wondering just how on earth he was gonna phrase any of this.

“Hunter Actual, this is Recon. We’ve secured the Comms post. We’re getting to work on cutting signals now and hacking their network. But we’ve got something more. We’ve captured a technician. He might have some useful intel for us.” Max said, his voice now calmed down a bit, but carrying some of the tone he’d hurled at Elias, who seemed to have gone all quiet now. Rather unsurprising, the lion thought to himself.

At the far end of the airfield, near the hangars, Fionn and Leslie's assault had caught the defenders off guard. The rapid tempo of their attack had given them little time to react, and left the rebels scrambling to fight back effectively.
Small arms fire lashed out from the hangar doors toward the GEARs, and a quartet of pickups and off-road vehicles with heavy weapon mounts raced out from the doors, which slowly rolled open. Auto grenade-launchers, recoilless rifles and heavy machine-guns lashed out toward the pair of GEARs as the drivers weaved and dodged across the flat ground. As the doors to the hangar opened wider, a small transport jet rolled out, escorted by another pair of vehicles.

In the vicinity of the comms tower, reinforcements moved into place. Summoned by the sounds of battle, one of the terrorists' improvised GEARs marched up the hill. A civilian cargo handler, it had been modified with improvised armour plate over delicate systems and jury-rigged heavy-weapon mounts. Spotting the pair of unmanned GEARs, the hostile jogged across the cleared space, and turned to face the only intact cabin, covering the doorway with its weaponry. The PA system crackled to life as the pilot spoke.
"Come out of the cabin and throw down your weapons!"

Meanwhile, Silverwind had pushed on, clearing the defensive positions. The trees thinned out at the border of the small airfield. He stopped the GEAR within the boundary of the trees and scanned the surroundings using both the onboard sensors and the feed from the Big Eye drone. A few defensive positions stood out on his thermal imaging, and the Big Eye's footage picked out the shapes of GEARs and an IFV guarding the operations building.
Okay, he thought to himself, nothing I can't handle.
Even as he said that, the jet rolled out of the hangar and onto the runway with its' escort, and his radio came to life with Max's message.
"Roger, Recon. Secure the prisoner and move to the airfield to secure it with the rest of the unit. All units; stop that aircraft from taking off if possible; it's likely they're trying to move someone or something of high value!"

Rishun and Max
@Esailia

Spotting the pair of unmanned GEARs, the hostile jogged across the cleared space, and turned to face the only intact cabin, covering the doorway with its weaponry. The PA system crackled to life as the pilot spoke.
"Come out of the cabin and throw down your weapons!"

Rishun kept working, strangely calm. She was focused on her task of hacking the console, but she did spare a glance back at Max, commenting "Big eye was closed, I guess."

Max looked to Rishun in annoyance, then down at the cat again, who had a wry smile. How the fuck his UAV hadn’t pinged he didn’t know, but right now, he didn’t want to think on that. They had company. A serious deal out there, and well, the cat had something to say about it.

“Not so cocky are you now, eh? You better do what he says, eh?” Elias remarked, Max looking to Rishun and cursing, not physically reacting as the lion looked deep in thought.

“Well, we’ve been caught with our pants down. I’ve got a plan, but it’s really stupid. There’s only one GEAR out there..or else he’d have breached already or blown us apart. That and ...your friend wouldn’t allow you to be blown apart, Elias. Like he knew you’d be here, on your lonesome. Looks like you scumbags are actually more honourable than I thought.” Max said to both of the other occupants of the cabin, shaking his head as he saw the cat squirm to the door, Max pushing him down onto the wall and aiming his rifle squarely at Elias’s forehead.

"GOT IT!" The otter yelped to no one in particular, unplugging her gear with practiced ease, packing up quickly and efficiently. Who ever said hardwire was outdated? Rishun locked her small toolkit closed and latched it securely to her belt before she hopped over to Max, calling "Scrap! Qyii'radey!" The lion saw the otter hop over, excited as ever but remained focussed directly on the cat.

“Not so fast, Elias. Make another move, and I won’t hesitate to dump your leverage. I’m fucking crazy, remember. RIshun, keep a gun to his head…..I’ve got something in mind. We’re gonna need to face the music with our feline friend...just follow my lead. Reckon you’ve got a ball in our court?” The lion asked, checking a few things on his carrier vest, forming a wry smile of his own. He saw her unplug her equipment, the excited otter now inside their system.

Rishun followed orders as Scrap scurried over to slip into his home pod, locking his own hatch closed. The Otter tugged her pistol from its holster, grabbing Elias by wrapping her arm around his neck. The cat squirmed a bit, but given Max was still there with his rifle in the vague direction, he made a mental note not to push too hard, especially given the lion was especially unpredictable. Even with the odds in the cat’s favour, he was scared, and didn’t want to push his captors, not when there might be an outcome where everyone might live. The lion on the other hand, didn’t really see that being a situation where himself and Rishun would be able to continue their mission.

After all, this was a shitty idea. Max had done what he was thinking just once before, only once. And that ended with about two months in hospital and Max’s CO struggling to even buy the story. Staring down a GEAR with no weapons at point blank range, you were sure as hell dead, and running from a fight from this range wasn’t going to work when something like that had an arsenal at its disposal- even on an improvised platform. But Max guessed it was likely poor in tech just like the other IFV- the sound of it was something he could tell was much older, more civilian in operation than a military-type GEAR. So he would take his chances. And hoped, just hoped Rishun had something up her sleeve to go with his mark.

Moving outside, Max held his rifle up over his head, walking outside and placing it down gently in front of him.The GEAR was about six feet away from the cabin, armed up with a pair of MMGs and a single 40 mil grenade launcher. Well, it was packing heat, but it wasn’t crazily armed. His suspicions that it was improvised were confirmed, as he saw the operator half-exposed in the bloody thing. If that cabin had windows, he might have tried his luck to shoot him out with his rifle, but well, that was just too risky now they were in the open. So it was Plan A as per usual. Max kept his hands raised, looking back at Rishun who was standing just at the door holding Elias in front of her, then up at the GEAR.

“Not so fast! We’ve got one of yours ...let's all slow down, shall we?” Max said, the GEAR operator a little shocked at what he saw, hands up again.

“Get on the ground, now! Elias, get over here!” The militant GEAR operator yelled, as Max looked at Rishun sternly. She gave the slightest nod to him as they made eye contact. She tightened her grip around the tiger's neck, causing him to wheeze.

“Oh no you don’t! He’s not going anywhere until you get out of that thing and we talk like gentlemen!” Max replied, knowing just what he was doing, and how absolutely stupid this was gonna sound to everyone there. The GEAR operator got frustrated, moving closer, weapons raised at Max, clearly angry as he spoke through his PA.

“I wasn’t asking I was telling, all of you, get on the ground, or else I’ll turn you inside out! I’m serious! ” The operator yelled, Max seeing one of his MMGs now a little more up close. It was like staring down a tank, but if that tank was 12 feet tall and could easily stamp on you rather than run you over. That said..Max felt his odds of success were going up, as he eyeballed it. Yeah, this pan could work. Max looked up, still confident as ever, yelling back in the direction of the GEAR.

“That isn’t very gentlemanly of you then! Alright ...we'll get on the floor. You gonna sit there and point guns at us till your friends come to restrain us? What about Elias...he’s not very military, you’ll get his uniform dirty!” Max said rather chirpily, the lion looking on with a gleeful look. Way, way more confident than he ever should have been when facing down someone with a piece of equipment like this.

“Silence! Shut the fuck up….I’ll blow you apart, you hear!?” The GEAR operator yelled, Max taking the GEAR yelling to use his helmet’s mic, set to a more sensitive setting than beforehand. As he had checked his plate carrier earlier, it was one of the very few things he’d done- setting it from a loud setting to a whisper, the mic now highly sensitive yet catching Max’s quieter tone.

“Rishun, in about ten seconds, seal your eyes shut and bury your head. Just watch Elias. Trust me on this.” Max said, taking a knee, as he knew this was it. Go time. There was no reply from his partner, but behind him Rishun hunkered down a little more, preparing for the next fifteen seconds of hell about to engulf the little area. Scared, but the Solernia military doesn't train incompetent soldiers…

The other thing the lion had checked his plate carrier for, Max reminded himself in this moment, and the reason he always carried it, was a flashbang, a couple of explosive charges and his UAV’s recall tag. And right now, Max knew the former was about to get used in a way he’d never planned it to. The optical package of the GEAR was good, but not good enough to either see it masked and hanging by the pin on the back of Max’s left gloved hand, nor was it flash-resistant. The optics were built with civilian construction use in mind, not refocussing to intense explosives or bright light. Even then, Max knew it wouldn’t be long- maybe a few seconds at most, and that would be barely enough to close the distance, plant and run. As for the UAV? Well, that was an additional treat.

But it was something. And right now, Max had run out of any other ideas.
As Max put himself from his knees and onto the floor, the buzz of a UAV could be heard, Max’s UAV, the quadrotor suddenly coming into sight a few feet to the left hand side of the trio in the mud, the GEAR refocussing his attention. And it was just enough, literally just enough for Max to toss the flashbang off his hand and right beneath the GEAR’s front. In the brow of it’s optical eye, in fact. Just as the operator focussed his sight on Max once again, the lion had buried his eyes into the mud, Rishun tucking her head and hiding her eyes behind Elias' shoulder, and the seconds turned to eternity.

One, two, THREE!

The noise was deafening, it was ringing and horrid, because Max, Rishun and Elias had been a few feet away from the flashbang’s final resting place, the flash grenade going off nine times in a second and filling the immediate area with noise and light. If anyone was seeing it directly from this distance they would have been blind for at least a good minute, and damaged of hearing for at least ten. Unlike a stun grenade it wouldn’t disorient you, but being suddenly blind and deaf would make it a bit more tricky to figure out which way is up. Nevertheless, the wider impacts of hearing damage weren't on Max’s mind, as he didn’t even care if the GEAR had been okay or not, his mind focussed as the adrenaline coursed through his bloodstream, knowing there was minimal time to fuck this up. There was only time to get this right.

The lion charged, sprinting at full pelt from a prone position and taking in oxygen at an athlete’s pace, sliding on the mud beneath the GEAR that had miraculously been knocked back, weapon facing slightly offset to where they were from the blinding flash. His M23 was in his left hand, picked up as he ran, the lion maybe stupid enough to miss the ping of his UAV but not to forget his service weapon. The GEAR hadn’t fired, which meant at the very least, he understood if a 40mm was fired this close it’d do damage to everyone, or something worse. It wasn’t to be analysed, Max mused, as he slid behind and planted the charges, the sticky composition binding the GEAR’s upper leg chassis, the crotch of the mech, in fact. And now the GEAR was coming back to his senses, he had to just run, run, run, past it and towards his own....

“Rishun, GET DOWN!” Max yelled, ripping the clacker off his plate carrier and into his hands, as he didn’t care about how far he was, what direction the GEAR was facing, or what was going on. Maybe Rishun had bought him some time, maybe he was about to die, maybe it was all gonna end with that GEAR putting a lot of lead into him.

The otter had kept her pistol on Elias, despite wanting so badly to offer her crazy companion fire support, and yanked herself back into the building with her prisoner, knowing full well the details of what shrapnel could do to a head.

Maxwell Bastion, fully aware of that fact, pulled the lever tight and hoped whatever deity there was might spare him today. If not for him, at the very least, for the otter that he wanted to keep alive more than anyone right now because of his fucking stupidity.

The militia GEAR erupted, the underside legs first falling apart as the fuel cell caught light and detonated spectacularly, throwing Max off his feet and at least a good 10 feet away, the force of the hydrogen cell going up at this range incredible. The GEAR collapsed entirely, a burning wreck with the charges lit and molten metal now dripping off it’s sides. There was no way anyone could survive that if they were piloting it, no doubt.

The few seconds between the initial explosion and after all the bigger chunks of metal hit the ground were the worst for Rishun. She was fighting her own fear of making a mistake while keeping a now dazed and just as scared prisoner under control "Damn you, want a bullet?! Keep struggling and it might go off by mistake, Now MOVE!"

Elias did as he was told, the cat not covering his eyes and squirming but ultimately not choosing to run given Rishun was still there and the lion could be about.

“Alright, alright!” He yelled in an off tone, his hands still bound so he wasn’t going to go anywhere with Rishun keeping a gun to his head. This hadn’t gone to plan...so right now, he wasn’t gonna try and run, given the fact his only help had just gone up in flames.

The otter forced Elias out the door and shoved him in the direction of the GEARs, the distance looking like thirty miles instead of thirty yards. Hopefully the explosion knocked out or outright killed all of the enemy infantry, and she wasn't about to get shot in the back, ending this little shred of insanity that was Max's plan…

Stop thinking, focus on running!

The lion brushed the mud off his eyes and face, Max hearing the noise of infantry in the distance, beyond the ringing in his ears. He felt like he’d just been in a bar fight, the worst bar fight ever. He wiggled his toes and fingers, looking down his torso at any immediate signs of injury, impalement, the worst injuries basically. Nothing in particular, apart from a lump of what looked like armour plate had barely missed his head by a meter, and a few bits of what looked like loose scrap had buried its way into his chest rig. Nothing had pierced it entirely but some of it had scraped him badly, he could tell that much, even with the adrenaline flowing- the lion had just been ridiculously lucky not to die, let alone not suffer a serious injury. Some cuts to his arms, legs and core from small shrapnel was pretty much a miracle.

Sitting up, he took his M23, clearing the filthy mag out of it, tapping his head. There was a significant crack across his visor, so he took it out entirely, his helmet scratched and covered in a shower of mud, small particulate shrapnel and other bits. He looked over seeing a few more infantry come over the hill, and pulled himself along to a more prone position, the holographic on his M23 still live as he slid a magazine back in, clearing the bolt.

“Rishun…..are you still breathing? Please tell me you’re alright…that was insane.” Max said, no longer seeing the sight of Elias nor Rishun by the cabin, which had been mostly shielded from GEAR’s explosion.
Max showed a genuine concern, beyond just a professional care in this line of work for the otter who had been brought into this. He felt regret, he just felt so stupid….being bold was all well and good, but right now, he’d risked his partner and brought her headfirst into his world, and into the very worst of it. Rishun was a tech, not someone who’d been in the line of special forces work to his style, which to most wasn’t exactly ordinary. She didn’t have that mindset he did, she had a warmth, playfulness and not ...what Max had been demonstrating. She had a soul, and going through that kind of hell that was instant intensity and risk in a warzone was never anything Max wanted anyone to experience. But he just had to hope she’d get clear, that at least would make what he just did worth something. He felt guilt, but right now, had to push that down, keep it suppressed. This wasn’t a time to think, it was just a time to survive this, and ask questions later.

"Yes I am still alive!" Rishun called over her radio, her ears still ringing from the explosion, trying her best to avoid tripping over her prisoner "Elias is good too, heading for our GEARs!"

“Thank fuck….I’m relieved to hear that, Rishun! Get yourself inside your GEAR, and get ready to defend. We’ve got infantry inbound, about five militants or so ...I'll try and pick them off with my rifle from my position, it’s too risky for me to get to my GEAR from here straight away. I’ve got some shrapnel wounds too...nothing serious though. I can still fight, don’t you worry.” Max added, scanning and looking for Rishun, whilst watching the infantry coming in. They were at a distance on their left hand flank, and Max knew the two of them would ordinarily be able to clean this up. Max knew however, their current situation wasn’t very ordinary. He took his M23 into both hands and calmed his breathing, his rifle low and his overall profile flat lying down, ready to start defending. It was beginning to hurt a bit more now, his armour shredded but at least it had done its job and stopped anything more.

""Copy that! I'll give you cover once I have secured the prisoner!" Rishun kept shoving the tiger in front of her, and an eternity of sprinting through mud they reached the leg of her GEAR. Panting hard, she shoved Elias down onto his knees, ordering "Stay here and you stay alive." Before holstering her pistol and grabbing at the ladder rungs to climb up the leg, getting the hatch open in short work and slipping inside.

Max nodded, even though he knew Rishun wouldn’t have seen it at all. He moved his hand back and rolled a little through the mud, hiding his silhouette a little more in the outpost’s hilltop. The militants looked confused, but on high alert, looking and searching for everything.

“Understood, Rishun….we haven’t got a lot of time though. They’re getting very close.” He replied, his comms back to hyper-sensitive as he chatted quietly, so as to not catch the attention of the soldiers. One of them had an AT launcher on his back, and as such, was Max’s first target, the second of the scattered group in the sights of his canted holographic. Breathing in, the lion took a gulp of oxygen and pulled his finger on the exhale.

“Clink!” The rifle seemed to exclaim, the silenced M23 finding its mark in the militant’s skull, knocking him down quick. Max readjusted his aim on the second man, taking the last of his exhalation and double-tapped, aiming for centre mass and guessing it would be enough to down the labrador with the shots. He took another breather, looking for the others, the lion’s mind still running on the surge of adrenaline from what he’d done to the improvised GEAR. The other three were getting closer, and Max knew it’d be risky to take another one of them out from here, or at least without getting fired on himself now.

The GEAR responded to Rishun's return, purring to life from idle mode as the engines revved up. The otter quickly threw aside a multitude of virtual screens to clear a wider area of view for her external cameras, punching in her key code to lock in her security clearance at the same time. Nothing compared to an adrenaline rush to speed up your words per minute. Rishun grabbed her joysticks and yanked hard, unceremoniously scooping up Elias in one massive left hand while the other gripped her rifle. This wasing going to be pretty, and Z'awwkh was going to be LIVID about the damage the right hand was going to take from what she was about to do. She pulled the Aqua Goddess around and barreled towards Max's position, using her thermals to count up the infantry advancing on her partner. While he had gotten two, there were a trio rounding a corner off to his left.

"MAX DOWN!" Rishun yelled, and with a maneuver that would probably get her written up for endangering a friendly, kicked her wheels out and slid while leaning back onto her GEAR's ass, just as she was bringing up her rifle to steady it on her left forearm, tight against the shield. The mech stopped just a few feet from Max's left, putting herself between the lion and the enemy soldiers. Rishun didn't bother to aim manually, letting the computer make micro adjustments to her arm's position "Cover ears!"

Max’s already ringing ears rang out even more, as she heard Rishun’s GEAR slide, rifle rested and fired from an incredibly improper position. He buried his head down, even with the tactical ear protection that his helmet provided, getting close to a high-caliber rifle firing was always gonna hurt as he knew she would get the others with her aquatic rifle. The hostiles in front quickly were blasted apart, as Max watched Rishun’s GEAR tear them asunder, leaving small craters where they’d been in front. It had worked, somehow. Not very accurately, but the fire had at the very least dissipated them, and cleared them out.

The lion looked back up at Rishun’s GEAR as he stood up from his prone position, giving a thumbs up. If Rishun would look closely, he’d see that Max was covered head to toe in mud, from his wild mane to his boots, definitely not looking like the usual suave self he had been. He seemed to look a little weaker, as he was very winded and hurting now, Max seeing the sight of Elias in the Aqua Goddess’s hand and the rifle in the other.

“Much appreciated! That was a hell of a maneuver you pulled there! Looks like we’re clear, for now at least. All hostiles eliminated it looks like.” The lion chirped, as he reloaded his magazine, and looked ahead, before looking back at the Aqua Goddess. As for himself...he’s probably pull through. Get some painkillers, and get back to the Lion Rampant.

Rishun was panting inside the mech, but as the smoke cleared from her firing line, all that remained of the trio were faintly glowing chunks of things Rishun no longer wanted to look at. She turned the torso and leg it flop onto it's back for a moment, her rifle resting at an angle on her leg "Yeah...but it will be worth the write up if you get to see me cleaning the engineers' tools for a week.."

She lifted her right hand, and Max could see the palm's metal plates were dented inward in the shape of the rifle grip, and even a few pistons were ruptured. She had held it in such a way that the butt of the rifle had been away from her shoulder. So the hand had taken all the recoil.

Max chuckled, hearing her reply, shrugging.

“I think we should just keep what happened between us, yeah? I mean ...you'll get a write up for that, what I just did might get me a fast-track out of the service and into a brig. I won’t tell if you don’t!” Max replied wittily, knowing that yes, it would be likely kept between them but hey, it was probably for the best.

Almost forgotten in Rishun's left hand, Elias was limp, unconscious from being so close to a firing mech rifle. The otter sat up slowly to look him over as she answered "Problem is most of that was caught by external cameras, Max. Also this guy will not be happy when he wakes up…"

She got up, her right arm creaking audibly to Max, and retracted her wheels before facing her partner in crime "Let's get you back in one piece."

Max nodded, as he gently started to hobble, moving across the muddy and wrecked remains of the comms post towards his own GEAR, the Lion Rampant standing tall as usual.

“Yup….let’s get back to Silverwind, pronto. I’ll live...cheers, Rishun. We’ll deal with the fallout from this later. I’m sure he’ll understand we did what we had to. He seems to think like me. I think so, at least.” Max replied on their private comms, stern but aware that well, the two of them had nearly both died and needed to get the fuck out of here.

Putting his M23 and equipment back into his GEAR’s weapons compartment, he took his first aid kit from the left leg, sealing both compartments before clambering into the pilot’s seat once more. He popped a few more painkillers and took off his plate carrier, leaning back into the seat with a painful sigh. He jabbed the syringe of the IFAK into his wrist, and looked a little closer at the wound, knowing he wasn’t gonna be able to fiddle with any of this himself. Oh, Vonys was gonna have a field day with him, right after what they talked about on the corvette. Brilliant.

The lion fired up his GEAR, the Lion Rampant whirring into life, the 30mm loaded and prepped to go. He exhaled, wheeling it over on the mud, but stopping to take heavier stomps towards the Aqua Goddess’s side.

“Same for you I suppose with getting your GEAR home, Rishun- let’s make sure you don’t do any more damage to it. That hand mechanism doesn’t sound healthy. If we run into any more contacts, I can take point- you’ve got my drone and other systems on your tab so feel free to prioritise those. Apart from that, my stuff seem to be all good...apart from me lacking my visor, it’s ship-shape here. With Elias, I suppose just make sure he stays out- we’ll give him to Silverwind and the rest of the forces joining us here later on, and they can deal with him as appropriate..” Max added, looking down the hillside and towards the sight of the airfield, shaking his head. The state of him wasn’t great, but hey, at the very least, his GEAR was intact..

Without his visor he had a little less combat awareness and had to rely upon his GEAR’s display systems inside the cockpit, but he could make that work for him, configuring his thermal imagery and UAV to link up once again. With a gentle swipe, the UAV was sent ahead and high up, buzzing off from the landing it had taken near the comms post, as the Lion Rampant stood tall in position, rifle ready and sheltering the injured lion. He seemed ready to move out, and now the adrenaline was dropping away, he was gonna have to hope the painkillers picked up their role and got him through this operation.

"Agreed. Yours has more firepower anyway. We are just lucky I haven't needed to take on anything big." Rishun pulled up a system health overview, and winced. She had burned out the two out of five pistons in her palm, rendering her index finger and thumb inoperable. The only thing holding the rifle in the hand was the metal bent around the grip and the index finger stuck inside the trigger. She quickly set their prisoner down and slowly extracted the rifle grip from her right hand, locking it onto its back hip handprint and picking Elias up again.

“Hunter Actual, this is Recon...we’ve secured our prisoner and eliminated all hostile threats at the comms centre. We got jumped on by some reinforcements but it's ...uhh, well....it’s a story to tell over a beer, Captain. I’ve got no direct line of sight to the runway from this position...need us to reposition and get a bead on that aircraft?” Max asked through the group comms, knowing that while they were a far distance out, getting a shot on with his 30mm might take down an engine or a wing.

It might be enough to stop it, even if they were too slow to get down to the airfield, to at least stop it when it got airborne. The GEAR’s weapons systems weren’t exactly designed for AA, but when you’ve got a 30mm rifle questions like that become more of a marksman’s, rather than an analyst, as the Lion Rampant and Aqua Goddess were ready to move.

another collab with @redbaron1234

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Leslie did a double take as the handful of pickups came streaming out. They were easy to spot with the GEAR's many sensors. Nothing they couldnt handle but they couldnt get complacent with them either. She gave Fionn a quick callout "Technicals, over there." She rasied her own rifle to take aim before she noticed the jet rolling out into the open. It was clear it must be high value; nobody would attempt to take off from such a ruined runway in the middle of a fight like this unless it was important.

"Roger, Recon. Secure the prisoner and move to the airfield to secure it with the rest of the unit. All units; stop that aircraft from taking off if possible; it's likely they're trying to move someone or something of high value!"

That confirmed it. "Fionn, think you can handle the first four trucks? I am going to try and stop the plane."

“How kind of them to come to us, though I prefer if they’d give me more than a moment of respite.” Fionn said, audibly annoyed.

Fionn took a moment to look over the cover, quickly scanning the threat and mentally formulating a plan of action. He counted, four vehicles in the vanguard, all lightly armored. One with a grenade launcher, the shrapnel would be a detriment if it lands close. Two with HMGs, and the last with a recoilless rifle, likely a problem if it strikes true. With quick thinking instinctively drilled into him over many combat encounters, he formulated his next steps.

Swinging out of cover, he fired a volley of mortars toward the center two technical. One HE round landed true and pierced the top of the cabin before exploding, instantly killing the driver and sending shards of broken glass from the rear window into the gunner, eliminating the grenadier technical.

Another HE round landed immediately in front of an HMG technical, popping the front tires right before a small crater. The forward momentum of the truck followed by the immediate depression caused it to faceplant into the hole and flip over, rendering it incapacitated.

With those two out of the way, Fionn could focus on the last two. While the recoilless rifle could be a threat, it was clear it had no stabilizer, giving it rather poor accuracy. Feeling safe, he bursted the last two down with his own barrage of rounds, which while not sporting pinpoint accuracy, had enough in a standing position to make short work of the exposed gunners and the drivers that were behind practically non-existent armor.

In the end that was another group of enemies down and all they had to show for it was some scrapes and a few holes, in non-vital areas, on Fionn. “They are not going to be a problem anymore, at least not alive.” Fionn said to Leslie, before turning to see what she achieved in the time.

Leslie hadn’t waited for Fionn to finish his attack before moving out. Her two trucks were moving fast, and she’d have to close the distance to get a good shot on them. Climbing out of the crater, she kept running as she hoped her teammate had the other trucks occupied. Scanning the terrain, she saw a likely path for the plane to take to the runway, and burnt out airframe that would make for good enough cover. She made a dash for it, keeping an eye on trucks and plane.

The two trucks moved to intercept her, a soldier loading the grenade launcher mounted on one. “Shit,” she hissed, sliding into the cover just in time to watch several grenades fly over the burnt husk and explode a couple dozen yards down the runway. She snapped out of her cover and opened up on the truck as it passed. A series of bursts from her rifle landed just short of the truck, kicking up sparks off the pavement. Both trucks circled around her wide as she kept tracking and finally disabled the grenade launcher truck’s engine. The rest of the clip made sure the truck went up in flames.

She had dropped the mag to reload when she saw the other truck’s armament: a missile launcher. Her HUD lit up as it warned her of the impending lockon. With her rifle empty and moments to spend, she did the most expedient thing she could do. Keeping her focus, and her laser designator, squarely on the truck , she launched one of her precious anti-armor missiles. It struck true, blowing up the truck just as her sensors confirmed the launcher had on her.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she remembered the cargo jet still making its way down the runway. Turning around she saw a pair of flaming gouts emerge from the tips of the wings. “Damn, they got JATO’s.” It made sense that they would try this, with the runway so rough they needed as short of a takeoff they could pull off. It was moving too fast for her to be able to reload and shoot. It wouldnt be long before the wheels would lift off. “Shit, shit,” she muttered. An idea popped to mind, a horrible idea that she needed to act upon now. With her remaining missile, she looked ahead of the plane and fired, forming a massive crater. The nose of the plane soon dipped down and slammed the fuelselage into the ground, the boosters still pushing the wheel-less plan across the ground until a wing sheared off. It was a rough impact, but it did ground the plane. “Fionn, The plane’s immobilized. Get over here.” Letting out a sigh of relief, she finally reloaded her rifle. Keeping her aim focused on the plane, she circled around to the passenger side as she hailed Silverwind. “Sir, this is Sobero. The plane has been grounded. Securing the wreckage.” A quick walkaround in her GEAR saw no movement from inside the cabin.

Fionn looked just in time to see the aircraft to realize gravity existed and crash, shaking the ground near it as it scarred the land. Despite his GEARs stabilizers, he still felt reverberations travel through him. Looking at the wreckage, Fionn chuckled. “They’ll have to bury what’s left of them in a soup can.” Fionn said grimly.

Cautiously making his way to the half of the plane that still resembled one, he peered into the cockpit and confirmed his suspicions. Of the two piloting, one would need a closed casket and the other was sporting stylish holes in not so good places. “Yeah, they’re dead…” Fionn paused a moment, “…and at the risk of looking stupid, I think we bought a few moments of respite.”

Scanning the wreckage, Fionn noticed something buried under one of the wings. Something that did not belong. Nestled underneath the rubble was a large metal crate, presumably holding something they wanted to not give up. Something important enough to take risk the conditions that did not work out well for them. Whatever the thing is, it would be pertinent to tell his CO.

@Silverwind Blade
“Sir, we have successfully made the plane a fixture of the ground. No survivors, but there is a box. I’m guessing the thing they did not want to give up is inside it. Area is currently cleared of hostile forces, what are your orders?”

another collab with @redbaron1234

“Sir, we have successfully made the plane a fixture of the ground. No survivors, but there is a box. I’m guessing the thing they did not want to give up is inside it. Area is currently cleared of hostile forces, what are your orders?”

"Excellent work; sweep toward me and we'll tackle the knot of hostiles around the airfields' control tower and admin buildings. Looks like we're sweeping up."

Rishun and Max
@Esailia

“Hunter Actual, this is Recon...we’ve secured our prisoner and eliminated all hostile threats at the comms centre. We got jumped on by some reinforcements but it's ...uhh, well....it’s a story to tell over a beer, Captain. I’ve got no direct line of sight to the runway from this position...need us to reposition and get a bead on that aircraft?”

"Recon, Hunter Actual. Looking forward to the story and the beer already, Bastion. Negative on the A/C, Somachain and Sobrero beat ya to it. Sweep toward the airfield; we're rolling over the last of the heavy resistance left. We eliminate the last heavy weapons and GEARs, then take the command center, it'll open the place up for the follow-on force to take and hold, over".

Silver joined up onto Leslie and Fionn's duo, his GEAR sliding into formation with them on gliding foot-wheels. Smoothly and with slick movements born of experience, he snap-shotted a heavy weapons emplacement with a burst of 20mm rifle fire, before pumping out a pair of high-explosive mortar rounds to cover their approach as they closed distance with the sandbagged and reinforced dull grey, functional looking airfield control building. The last few vehicles the hostiles had seemed centered around the structure, and opened fire toward the approaching Ghost Hunters.

@Silverwind Blade

The Lion Rampant led the way down the smaller track, the noise of distant autocannon, small arms and aircraft noise reverberating and echoing across the tree-lined pines of the island, the GEAR thudding into the dark forest floor with a hurry. On terrain like this, Max didn't want to freewheel it downhill- it was too unstable and unsteady, and taking the path could lead them into more trouble. This way, the lion thought they could at least keep some stability and out of the path of least resistance up the hill. It looked like there was very little left to face off against, or at least, any that were awake on this island.

Max stopped as they reached a small clearing, taking a knee and looking over the view down to the airfield, at least a kilometer and a half away from the position that they had reached. A fair distance, with the flames and smoke of the aircraft wreck, hangars and destroyed vehicles in the sight.
"Hold here, Rishun. Let me do a little work before we move down- you may as well stick with me before we carry on. You've got access to my drone and other optics, so feel free to use those while I do some anti-social shooting."

Setting up at the crest, the lion raised the 30mm rifle and shouldered it, like a bowman would his weapon of choice. Except this one was an enormous caliber, large-scale bolt-action rifle that gave Max the ability to gain a view into the far distance. The lion saw the last remaining vehicles left around the command post, and a few other infantry units. Well, this was just too good not to savour.

Max flicked an AP mag inside, flicking the last remaining 30mm round out and into his GEAR's palm, holding it loose as he flicked the bolt. Pushing the bolt forward, the lion even calmed his own breathing, as if he was physically shouldering the rifle himself. His GEAR's hydraulics were rocksolid, a quirk he adored about the Hargun compared to his GEAR prior. It just felt precision-milled, even the hydraulics systems didn't feel like they were haphazard like earlier GEARS but actually made to work in tandem with the interface and weapon in hand. Not perfect, not like it was a rifle against his physical shoulder in terms of how he could point it and click, but as good as he could probably get it. That perhaps Sobero could alter, but alas, that wasn't on his mind right now. Killing technicals from afar was.

He picked up the first technical on the thermal optic, and with a gentle depression of breath, pulled the trigger of his joystick. There were two people aboard, one loading a higher-caliber machinegun of some kind, the sort that Max had seen too many times on a crappy technical like that. Not that it was gonna get to fire.

The round flew out, a couple of seconds passing as he watched it drop, the round following the ballistic computer's calculations and Max's own and slapping through the driver's cockpit and into the engine. Another followed, this time lower, and made the technical erupt, hitting the fuel tank with a double-check of a shot- the crew pretty much left to very little as a result of the first round's overpenetration. The black and white heavily mangnified thermal optic was bright with light, but Max was used to this, able to pick out what was moving and what wasn't.

The second technical next to it reacted quickly to the sniper shot, the gunner turning the gun quickly towards the hills, aware he could put some rounds back. Max didn't need to react urgently, given he already had it in his sights, and unlike the technical, knew exactly where the round was going. One tap, and the round had breached the engine block and the rear operator, leaving the driver miraculously unharmed as the distant thermal figure emerged from the driver's seat and ran out of the vehicle, aware he was about to probably get turned into mist if that round hit. Max put one more into the rear, decimating whatever ammunition was spare, and putting technical number two out of action. The noise of the 30mm had clearly given up Max's hope of being undetected, but nonetheless, it had solved the rest of the Ghost Hunters's vehicle problems, or at least hopefully most of them.

Still, Max couldn't see the inside of the control building, nor the far side of the building which could have hidden a technical there in itself. He couldn't win them all, the lion thought to himself, as he pulled the magazine out and scooped the regular 30mm cartridge into the chamber, before following it up with a magazine. He pulled back from his over-mangnified thermal optic, and looked back to Rishun, knowing he'd probably bored the otter senseless. She was gonna to want to bounce about, not sit here watching a lion snipe pickup trucks with an oversized cartrige for the job. After all, Max had just used an anti-tank round on basically tincans. Overkill, yes. But sometimes, you just needed to guarantee the job was done proper, and Max's AP rounds put lighly armoured metal out of comission like there was no tomorrow.

"Hunter Actual, this is Recon. Hope you enjoyed that, two technicals down on your mark. We're still a hike out from you, so we'll join you for marshmellows on those burning wrecks after. Me and Sprinstream probably won't make it for your building clearnace, but we'll be there in five, out.." Max said over the comms, hoping that Silver had appreciated their long-range assist, even if they weren't right there and then to help clear anything else out in the area.

With a gentle nudge, the Lion Rampant was back on its feet, looking back to the Aqua Goddess and the passed out Elias in Rishun's hand.

"All things considered, marshmellows and more painkillers are gonna offset the bollocking Silver and Vonys are gonna give me. Let's get down there and show them our esteemed guest of honour." Max joked, as he moved from his sniping position and back down the hillside, finding a better track to take down and now using his GEAR's wheels to gently get the Lion Rampant down towards the airfield. Eyes on a swivel as always, he knew their next step was to just rendeveous with Silverwind and get a lowdown on what next.

His point on painkillers felt like it was definitely relevant, especially now. The wounds weren't treated too well, or at least, it had been a very botch-job of a recovery he was on here. He could feel the shrapnel bite and while it wasn't going to be a long term injury, the worse scrapes were gonna leave light scars and bruises, that much he could feel. His threshold to pain when coupled to painkillers was high, but he could just sense that he got very much what he deserved for being a reckless idiot. This whole situation felt like it could have the capacity to escalate very quickly with what they had found, and the reconaissance lion just hoped Silverwind had a good hold on this situation and what this could lead to.

Rishun was still fretting over her GEAR's condition as they made their way towards the airfield. The path wasn't that treacherous and with Max leading the way, all she had to do was follow in his wake. She was worried about other things, like making sure their prisoner wasn't squeezed to death, and that her EWAR and ECCM were still operating properly, and that the information she had managed to gather from the enemy's computer system was safely isolated. Sometimes the realm of cyberspace could suck you in, and it was for this reason of multitasking all her screens that she nearly bumped into her partner when he stopped them on a ridge.

"Anti-social shooting? You're really hellbent on this devil-may-care vibe you got goin' aren't you?" Rishun joked, taking his advice and hooking up to his drone without much effort. She whizzed it up and around the immediate area, keeping overwatch for the sniper, the role of spotter obsolete in their GEARs. The forest here was pretty quiet, and she only saw the occasional small critter on the drone's thermals. So instead of focusing on that task, she allowed it to use a patrol pattern and set it to bleep at her if it found anything.

"Nothing looking at us funny, Max." She reported, then returned her focus to the prisoner. He was still out cold, but she could see him breathing slowly, and he didn't appear to be bleeding either. The otter looked over to Max, just as he was finishing up with his shots. She nodded her head and replied "I'm sure he will be quite intrigued by both our actions. I look forward to the bemused reprimands. I'm also looking forward to wringing our little friend here for info. I want to learn more about their systems."

She tucked her left arm in close to the body of her GEAR, and followed Max's lead down the slope on wheels.

The last few defenders fought for all they were worth. The firepower pouring out from the reinforced cinderblock and cement structures of the diminutive and rough-and-ready airfields' control buildings and their defenders almost seemed to intensify as the GEARs of the Ghost Hunters closed in. Grimacing, Silverwind linked to the Big Eye's sensor feeds and used the disk-shaped aerodyne drones' sensors to plot the location of the IFV's still lashing out autocannon fire, his GEAR stumbling and spinning partly on one side as he took one of the heavy 40mm rounds on the plate of reinforced armour. Warbling warnings sounded through his cockpit as the machines' sensors systems registered a hostile lock on with a laser or radar.
"Hunter lead to all units, be advised; the remaining hostiles have ATGM's and have a lock. Popping smoke and chaff to cover our advance, fire for cover as we move in. We've got 'em on the back foot".
Through the crosshairs in his helmet visor, the targeting reticle for the Anti-armour missiles on his GEAR's right shoulder turned green with positive lock-ons on two IFV's. "Deploy countermeasures," he growled to the computer system, his fingers squeezing the controls for the missiles at the same instant. Two plumes of white smoke tipped by glaring yellow fire lashed out across the space and blasted the armoured vehicles apart in globes of bright flame, before with a rippling crackle the shoulder dischargers on Silverwind's Hargun launched their chaff/hot smoke munitions, followed by a rapid whirr from the mortars auto-loader and a double thump as it blasted out a pair of smoke rounds that detonated ahead of the advancing group of GEARs.
Engaging his foot-wheels once more, Silver screeched across the rough matting of the airfield and darted into the smoke, weaving and drifting to emerge in a flanking position to the defenders. A blurting buzz of fire from the twin head-mounted rotaries tore through a knot of infantry in red smears, before with a decisive and forceful strike, the GEARs' left arm slashed forward and the Pile-Bunker slammed forward with the crack of a propllant charge to smash through the engine bay of a technical as the rear gunner trained his weapon on the advancing robot. A swift kick from the GEARs metalshod foot overturned the vehicle and sent the gunner sprawling.
A blast from the underbarrel shotgun cleared out another sandbagged heavy machine-gun nest, before a resounding clang rung through the Hargun's frame as something impacted the rear of the machine and triggered a series of minor cautions. Rear cameras showed another group of hostiles sheltering among the boxy shapes of electrical and service support cabinets a short distance away. One of them wielded some kind of hand-held, magazine-fed grenade launcher and aimed it from their shoulder, while others struggled to set up some kind of heavy gun.
Growling, he swivelled on the spot and stomped the GEAR closer, bringing the shield to bear to cover his advance.
"Hunters, got some resistance to the North-West, infantry taking up positions with heavy weapons. Going to sweep them out. Big Eye shows a fireteam of GEARs holding the main entrance to the building. I knocked out a technical and mission-killed - at least - two IFV's. Reading more active targets on Big Eye through IR and MAD; may be armour or possibly large ground vehicles, covering the rear of the buildings, along with numerous infantry heat signatures. Move in and knock 'em out Hunters".

@Esailia

Max chuckled, picking up the sight of the Aqua Goddess following behind.
"Bemused reprimands are the best. Beats reprimands they know that you knew exactly what the fuck you were doing." Max chuckled, as he scanned the horizon below, seeing the fire pick up again.
"Shit, more of them there too. Where'd they come from?" Max asked, the lion just annoyed rather than suprised, just frustrated he'd not be putting guns away just yet. But sometimes, that was life. More people needed to be turned into mush, and well, he was too caffinated right now to go that way.

"Keep back and stay in cyberspace, Rishun, I'll handle the reality. If you can pull a number on those ATGMs down there, our grey-haired Captain down there is gonna appreciate it. Maybe even forget any of it. I mean, holy shit, he's going straight in...my sort of fucking character. I'll crack on and follow him, but not before I clip a few more." The lion chuckled, as he headed down into the main facility, the Lion Rampant thudding through the forested undergrowth and out into the airfield environs.

On the edge of the forest, Max could break away from Rishun and give her the ability to hold back, the lion aware he'd have to snipe a bit more. Silver and the rest of the team were in the thick of it, and he had the chance to lay in some sniper rounds from here. The lion had to admit, Silverwind was biting a lot more than he could chew, but Maxwell had no leg to stand on. He'd run underneath a GEAR merely minutes ago and nearly blown himself apart along wtih it. Stupid decisions back then made sense. When you felt the slight tingling of sharp shrapnel scraping against skin, Max was reminded if you're gonna be dumb, better be tough.

@Silverwind Blade
The lion, knowing he was playing the support here switched his comms back on in his helmet back to the team frequency, and patched back into the comms with the Captain. Whilst he did that, he slung an AP magazine back in, aware this was going to be his chance to neutrilise the heavier vehicle targets in Silverwind's ways.

"Copy, Silver. I've got eyes on you and hostiles. AP-I's loaded up, I'll tackle mostly vehicles from here." Max raised his 30mm with a confident pose, and aware the base was all guns blazing on Silverwind and the assault team, engaged his thermals. In the dust and smoke, he could see clear, picking out a couple of technicals. The 30mm roared, the backblast buffetting conifers around him as the lion roared, watching one erupt into flames through the dust. The one next to it followed, and then, the much bigger sight of an improvised GEAR next to it was coming.
"Suck shit, dickhead!" Max yelled, firing another round clean into the GEAR's top, then knee-joint, the 30mm graceful in his hands unlike the 20mils mostly used by the team. The armour-piercing rounds with the accuracy he had to hand made it easy, with another to the core to quickly immobilise and kill the militia mech. Even a militia improvised GEAR could take a lot of punishment, but the 30mm armour-piercing could make short work of all but the thickest armour plates, especially when used right by a marksman like Max.

With the magazine finished, he needed to relocate and so he did, taking a couple of strafe rounds from small arms and an LMG on the far side, telling him clearly to get out of that spot. It pinged, and the warnings flashed, the noise of the rounds heavy on metal, but something Max knew his GEAR could withstand. After all, he was giving it back to them.

Setting up a normal magazine round, the 30mm found it's way in the MG nest firing on both Silver and Max, quickly puncturing the sandbags and blasting apart anyone inside with ease, followed up by the nest of infantry picking off Silverwind. Even if not massive in area of effect, the 30mm round was much more noticable, significant when it hit even, and not leaving anything behind, either alive or dead. The lion continued to pepper, finishing off the magazine and clearing up half a dozen infantry easily with the rounds, though his view of the other side of the facility was obstructed by the last building standing. Silverwind was closing in on it, and with little immediate support, Max knew he could rally up and get closer in.

The rounds out, the lion looked over to the fox's GEAR in the near distance, his own Hargun taking an awful lot of fire from Silver's frontline role. Max had to admit, he'd done it before, and it was never fun. Stressful, as a matter of pure fact. But a necessity, given a GEAR wasn't just an advanced reconaissance platform. It was a warhorse, a titan standing taller than any breathing Arvaran could and with weaponry like the kind an IFV would have. On a platform much more agile, tactile and intuitive. And one Max threw himself into, on his wheels and charging down the concrete, feeling the literal heat that came from the burning wrecks of vehicles and fuel tanks on this part of the airfield, Max aware he'd have to use his 30mm as a close-range bolt action from here on out if he was using his primary. But Max had enough sniping, he thought. It was time to finish this job, maximum aggression. Max did not have a close quarters weapon proper, but he did have a very large axe that would cleave its way through most things, and a rocket grapple that did more or less the same thing.

"Your six is clear, one GEAR neutrilized, two heavy techinicals down, but got no more sightlines from where I've been. I'm moving on you to finish this. I don't want to miss any of the fun." The lion called out to Silverwind, the Lion Rampant back on its feet in the immediate vicnity of the building, Max aware he wasn't going to be of any use as a sniper if he couldn't get a bead on this location. Going around would have been too hard, but the lion knew here he could do some more damage. He let go of a chaff round as he headed through, breaking the lock via line of sight and chaff to reach Silver's position by the building, aware they had to clean it out and get around the building flank to hit the last remaining resistance. With an oddly cool head after his last outburst, the lion was holding control of his GEAR, and focussing on just getting the job done. Like any good Special Forces soldier, Max was not an easy Arvaran to kill, nor did he want to be.

Moving to Silverwind's side, he pushed his 30mm onto his back and drew his 40mm grenade launcher back open on the Lion Rampant's left arm, drawing the axe in his right. A weird akimbo, yes, but one that worked. One hand boom, one hand bang, as he pelted a technical and an infantry squad ahead, quickly eliminating them with a succinct succession of rounds.
"Got eyes on an position onto that building's side...bear with. I'm gonna hit the retract on my rocket grapple amd sort em', we've got a ton of infantry in there, mind lending me some cover and I'll sort it?" Max said rather directly, moving ahead of Silver, even straight into the fire as he punted a few 40mm GL rounds to his side to keep a squad of infantry down.

Turning his shoulder, he tapped away and turned the joystick of the grapple's interface towards the building, the lion quick on his feet to quickly realise how devastating it would be. Better than a point-attack of his sniper or his MGL, the lion thought to himself, as he fired it away, smashing a glass window with it before allowing to retract. With a singular GL that had weakened the entire side of brickwork the floor and walls began to give way, revealing a whole group of infantry rearming, restocking and setting up anti-tank grenades, all opened up for Max to turn his 40mm left arm on them and frame-mounted MGs and let loose. Quickly and effectively, Max didn't leave much of the position, even in spite of the heavy fire on his right flank, where Max knew the Captain and rest of the team were headed, lobbing a couple of smoke grenades forward to give himself room to breathe, and at least cancel out any potential remaining ATGM positions that could lock. They wouldn't have FLIR systems attached, so this would at least hurt their tracking of the Lion Rampant as it rampaged on the frontline.

Pulling back from the building, he cleared a few of the error messages, the GEAR taking heat as he moved back around to the side. In the heat of it, Max did think maybe staying back would have been better for his own health, but same time, that wouldn't have been helpful to the Captain right here. He needed a hand, so here he was, and after all, he was more effective. However, a GEAR all of a sudden was moving on their own flank, and closing in rapidly, going around the corner to try and get the drop on Silver and Max's forward position. Max was too close to switch to his 30mm, so did the only thing he could feasibly think of. Axe now switched to left hand, and the fact that the militia GEAR was only a rudimental weapons platform made this a fight that was clear to Max.

In a normal fight, you ran away when someone had a knife. You ran TOWARD if they had a gun. In these GEARS, same rules applied. So with a certain breed of ferocity, the lion didn't stop and the Lion Rampant, even in spite of the increasing number of bullets and heat it was taking from the militia GEAR's 6mm rounds, was not going to say no for an answer. The GEAR was too close-quarters to properly lay into Max, as he hurled the axe straight into the militia GEAR's top, the arms flailing and attempting to push Max over. The lion had already pelted the axe out, even in spite of taking a direct 20mm round to the Lion Rampant's torso, and slid it straight into the GEAR's shoulder-mount, and then rushed forwards. And this, was the reason he had a Combat Claw.

The claw pierced into the chest of the GEAR, as Max pushed the arm and crushed, the noise like metal being mangled and turned out, as the GEAR in front of him went very quickly lifeless and out of action, the operator inside turned to mulch. It was a right bastard pulling his claw out, the Lion Rampant now certainly feeling the impact of being in the frontline like Silverwind's own Hargun had. But it was why he brought his toys to the play like he did, as he pushed the lifeless GEAR onto the floor, scratched axe still going back on it's scabbard as Max now re-equipped his 30mm.
"One GEAR down on our flank. We've got ourselves quite a firefight here!" Max called out, fully aware of the fact they were definitely pushing hard, harder than they should have, but while they had the momentum Max could understand why Silver was so far forward. They weren't shying away, and shock and awe would be enough to subjegate any militia members ballsy enough to stand their ground.

The lion had to admit, that was an awful lot more intense than even he had bargained for. Quite badass, too. But when the going got tough, he could use his GEAR's uncommon arsenal to deliver a versatile punch, and support the hammer blow that Silverwind had gone and created. He could feel he wasn't going to be able to take a ton more damage, but was still combat capable and able to continue laying down medium-range AT against the remaining vehicles, aiming to pick them out. The lion's attitude seemed to line up nicely with the silver fox's when it came to aggression, yet Max knew that the main reason the Captain had gone for it was knowing they could press their advantage. The lion seemed somewhat detatched from his character, but in the heat of battle, there wasn't any place for ego or mind. Well, not when you were in a GEAR and having to be in control, rather than embrace chaos. It was his place, it was home, far, far from his own. And in the muddy soil outside that large barrack-building, the golden-grey GEAR with a lion at the helm was in a place to do what was needed, even in spite of the minor wounds the Arvaran inside or the metallic mech on the outside had. And that was to clear what was left and secure this point.

"I'm on your six, Silver, let's gut these fucks! Plenty more vehicles and infantry left, but they ain't got anywhere left to go!"