The ponderous nature of the Colonel's argument with the one named Sa'eed went ignored by roman as he focused his attention on a much more worrying event. The hiss of the common room door revealed the aforementioned teammate: a woman of Asian descent. Roman's scan-like gaze took all of her features as he tried to map out a preemptive personality profile. Her uniform was nice an tidy, her posture was straight, and with the general neatness of her appearance, it was obvious that she was one who cared what others thought of her. The was reflected is her own analytical sweep of the room, sizing up her teammates to pass her own internal guesses and judgement upon them. As she stepped forward, Roman took notice of her slight pause, as she continued to survey the room and her new teammates. It was only a short pause.

Then, her mouth opened. It was almost as if she was already in on the conversation going on in the room as she immediately started spitting out her hobbies and interests to the room at large. Hu-Shi Zhong's introduction was very thorough, although she completely neglected to mention anything about her skills on the field. That would more than likely come out later in the garages, if Roman had to guess. Once done with her info dumb, the Chinese woman then proceeded to deposit a small package onto the small coffee table, explaining the contents, then took a seat on the floor at the end. Roman never removed his gaze from the woman, completely ignoring the treats she had brought them. As everyone else ate, Roman tried to wrap his mind around some of the things she had said. She had mentioned that she was originally going to be put on the team of the original five alongside Scarlett and Karl. What would have happened to the original team is she had been there to start? The woman seemed kind-natured in general, as Roman couldn't detect any hits of deception. Though the cookies could have just been a stunt to impress, Roman didn't think that was the case. She, in general, gave off the aura of needing approval, although that probably wasn't the best term for it. Unlike his other two teammates, Roman didn't think she was going to be that hard to handle.

Of course, he would think that after his blood pressure returned to normal. The shock of a new source of interaction was slowly winding down as Roman did his best to suppress any form of shaking. Now that he had gathered what he needed to know from her, Roman turned his gaze to his hands that were folded in his lap. The slight movement to his left told him that Thessalia had taken a cookie, like everyone else. As she and the two previous newcomers conveyed their wishes for hot beverages to Richard who had stepped into the kitchen, a dilemma had manifested in Roman's mind. Should he, or shouldn't he, actually take a cookie. Both events, in the end, were unfavorable. If he took a cookie, he knew he would be expected to comment on it; perhaps even be forced to smile. If he didn't take one, the woman would more than likely notice and insist, in which case the former would take place anyway. There was though, the chance that she would say nothing. Roman decided to play the odds.

It seemed like she hadn't messed up too badly with the baking then. After all, considering how four out of the five teammates showed their approval one way or the other to her pastry arts, Hu-Shi was fairly confident that her first impression was a success. It appeared that she may have been a little too thorough with her introduction though, because by that point, no one actually asked her any questions about herself. Ah well, that was fine. It wasn't like she needed to talk that much the first place. Nodding at the shady guy's statement regarding tea, before noticing that such a statement did not hold true for all those in the team, she made a mental note that the Tea Party was comprised of the shady male and herself, while the Coffee Team was made of the pale girl and the country star. Now she'll just have to figure out what beverages the Canadian and the secretary liked.

Probably something along the lines of maple syrup and tea? That sounded like a safe bet in the future. Even though maple syrup was getting a little too expensive for her tastes.

The Canadian didn't take a cookie, as well. Perhaps he was the lactose intolerant one of the group? Or maybe, being Canadian, he ONLY ate pastries made with maple syrup? Yeah, that was probably it. Taking a butter pecan cookie and nibbling on it delicately, if only because no one else was eating a butter pecan cookie, Hu-Shi savored the taste of her own baking, making sure that any spare crumbs fell into her open hand, so she could throw them into the garbage afterwards. It would be inconsiderate to whomever who has to clean up the living room if she went out of her way to dirty it, after all.

Maybe she was just trying too hard, but Hu-Shi didn't think much about it. Turning to the boss lady, the Chinese girl shook her head in response.

“No, sorry to say, but I'm not much of a dancer. The farthest I've gone was in square dancing back when I was in elementary school, and even then, it was embarrassingly bad compared to others.”

Oh wait, now she remembered what she had forgotten.

“Ah, and what's your name? I'd like to be able to call you by something other than a collection of adjectives, if possible.”

~~~
END OF DAY 69
~~~

~~~
DAY 70
~~~

For once, Richard was not in a murderous mood when he woke up, having managed to receive a decent amount of sleep after the team parted ways, and that was after the big coffee vs tea debate. He reminded himself to order in some fine Orellian Tea and try and convert the heathen. His eyes were still haggard and his pallor pale, but those would improve during the day. Stepping out of the armouring chamber with a yawn, the Englishman scratched the back of his head, feeling the small spikes on the tips of his gauntleted fingers scrape against his skin. Around him, the rest of the team were preparing as well, the males in various states of undress as he trundled past them, slapping his locker closed with his armoured palm. After being woken up by the Colonel’s message, Richard had taken a quick shower and breakfast, this morning being a good old fashioned bacon and eggs to sate his hunger. After taking a quick smoke on the way to the arena, he had found that he was the first to arrive, but made no attempts to wait for the team, preparing himself beforehand.

Sitting on one of the wooden benches, Richard tapped the wrist monitor of his suit and started to cycle through the GHOUL units listed in the school’s database. While there were the standard IMP and DEVIL models currently on the market, along with the now obsolete LUCIUS unit, Richard focussed on the few other models, some still marked as experimental. DEMON, a high velocity assassination and terror model that relied on visceral damage to rout its enemies. FIEND, a larger unit designed to reposition enemies and drag them into danger, as well as a brave venture by the GHOUL company into a more durable unit. JESTER, a small, agile unit that made use of a holographic projector to ‘glitch’ his image before closing distance to pump close range shaped microgrenades into vulnerable points. As well as this, there was the new, highly experimental support unit that Richard’s father had recently informed him about. NECRO, a puppetmaster of sorts, using nanites to ‘hijack’ enemies. Richard still did not understand it fully, but he would have to experiment with it to give some feedback back to his father. He would maybe use it in the next few missions, but for this particular one, he would have to go with something he was comfortable with. Most likely DEMON.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As his teammates finally emerged from their respective changing rooms, fully armoured and encased in the black, beetle-like carapace armour., Richard barely had time to give a nod, and was about to comment on Jack’s change once more, before the blast door leading to the arena opened with the hiss of hydraulics. A rush of air swept over them, bearing the stench of ozone and sweat, masked with the smell of antiseptic. Stepping into the changing room, Colonel Landsfeldt was as imposing as ever, his mechanical arms behind his back and his skeletal face pulled back in a skeletal smile. The familiar hiss of his bionics was comforting in a way, but also reminded the cadets of his partial immortality and difference to them. Here was a man that had been through hundreds if not thousands of battles and led as many charges into the enemy from the front. He bore decades of experience that they could only whisper about. They were barely starting on their journey. The other man was reaching the end.

“Attention!” he shouted, almost all the cadets instantly snapping into parade ground salutes with the harmonising clash of chemically hardened boots. “Welcome to your first mission as a unit, Team 1,” he said as he paced in front on the students, “Today’s mission will seem familiar to some of you, but utterly new to others.” Those few words sent a shiver down the Englishman’s spine. He had a feeling he knew what mission he was talking about. And he didn’t like it. A creature just as deadly as he was in melee was never appealing to him. “Throughout your lives you will be forced to fight a variety of missions against a variety of enemies, automatas, xenos or humanoid,” he started, staring each one of them in the eyes, Richard refusing to flinch against his cold, hard gaze, “some will be harder than others, but one thing is definite. You will need to rely on each other. Each one of you must be willing to put your life on the line for your comrades, and for the mission No-one is more valuable than the other, and you must remember this if you are to succeed.” The Colonel remained silent afterwards, letting the words sink in. “With that said, I wan t you all to enter the Simulation room, and prepare for you mission. Good luck cadets.” Snapping another salute, Richard stepped back to allow the Colonel to walk to the control room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stepping into the sterile, white simulation chamber with the rest of the team, Richard took a deep breath. This would be his first team simulation in a while. While he was curious how far his team would go, he calmed himself. He would have to pull his own weight here, or maybe even more than his own weight if one of them proved wanting. Clenching his fists tightly, the Englishman let out a tight breath, opening his eyes once more as he removed his glasses, placing them into a small armoured compartment in his chest. Instantly, a HUD appeared over his face, correcting his slight myopia and providing information of the units around him. He was interested in them, but at the same time, he knew what was coming next as the room hummed to life. “Close your eyes,” he warned his team as he followed suit, clenching his lids shut. Almost as soon as the words left his lips, the world lit up into stark whiteness, glaring through his eyelids and revealing the capillaries in them, but the Englishman kept them tightly shut to avoid any retinal damage.

When the brightness died down, Richard finally opened his eyes to something much darker and grungier than the previous white room. They were in a dimly lit briefing room, portholes in the walls revealing the dark void of space, speckled with the light of stars that broke the monotony. The ground was a rusty brass colour, with the occasional blood stain dictating an old boarding action or accident. The walls were painted in a dark green, with some sections having been scratched away to reveal the dull gunmetal beneath which was slowly rusting away. Well. This was a familiar scene. In the centre of the room was a small table, its surface dotted with various buttons and dials. Slowly an image flickered up, but continued to flicker inconsistently, making it unreadable. “Hold on,” Richard said, walking over to the table, “I got it.” At first, Richard tried to stabilize it with what seemed to be precise movements of the dials and buttons. It got it to get to a workable level. All of a sudden, the Englishman sent a vicious kick into the base of the machine, but not a hint of malice was borne on his face. Almost instantaneously, the machine stopped flickering, leaving the image of their mission briefing on the three slowly rotating screens.

+Mission Briefing+

Objective:
Kill the Saurid Matriarch

Planet:
Taeron Prime
Minor Agriworld
Mostly Savannah environment
Gravity of 10.02m/s2

Background Information:
Saurids landed two months ago.
Preyed on Isolated colonies and villages
Bred to the point where local defense forces could not contain them
Now own around 60% of the planet’s habitable surface
Cannot bomb area due to munitions dump for entire defence force being under the area
Attempts to deliver virulent biovirus via airdrop to Matriarch unsuccessful, due to anti-air bioforms destroying them, then Digesters converting it into an accelerant

+END+



Same old mission. If memory served, this was the mission which had been cancelled due to Karl being called away to a different squad. He also remembered the raging fury that turned Landsfeldt’s normally pale, corpse-like complexion tomato red. He was really pissed then. Nevertheless, Richard shared a look with Thessalia and Jack, before once more focussing on the screen. Saurids were nasty little things, attacking in swarms with their base creatures, and then mutating them to suit the new environment. They were a deadly enemy known for their adaptability and ability to appear without number. They reminded him a little of Terra’s ancient life forms, more specifically something called a ‘Vellocyraptore’, a bipedal creature with a larger horizontal height than vertical, equipped with wicked sharp claws and teeth and a cunning intellect. Saurids fitted this description to some degree, if only a little miniaturized, and a few minor anatomical differences. The base form bore no eyes, and navigated more by smell and heat more than anything else. Apart from what scientists suspected was a guiding hive mind, thanks to some specialised node in their brain…or something along those lines. Richard never really was the type to pay attention in class, despite gaining high grades.

The mission briefing was soon transferred to the monitor on their carapace suits while the rotating image was replaced with a map of the area they would be fighting in. White and red blobs swarmed all over the map like some insane illness, and continued to shift and struggle like amoebae. According to standard cartographic procedure for war, the blue would represent allied forces, and the red would be the enemy. The saurid Matriarch’s suspected position wasn’t marked, meaning that they would have to find the ugly bugger themselves. “Right…let’s get started,” Richard said, leaning in towards the map while keeping an eye on the mission briefing. “We’ve got a few insertion methods at our disposal,” he said as he scratched his chin, “first is the direct drop method, which will probably be what I’ll be taking. I can be sent right into the middle of enemy lines, and I’ll try to create a distraction for you guys to find the matriarch, but I don’t know how long I can last. Never fought a saurid before.” Using a finger, he traced an X onto an angry red blotch that was currently surging towards the leftmost bridge, where there was a small blue blob with another blob rapidly moving to reinforce. “Unless anyone has any better ideas?” Looking over to Thessalia, he raised an eyebrow. “Sergeant? I await your orders.”

Confirming her identity after stepping into the armouring chamber, Thessalia reflected on her thoughts from last night - after the conversations had slowly ebbed down and everyone had retired to the dorm rooms, she had taken the opportunity to do some quick research on the capabilities of the three new Squad members' respective A.W.E.'s, as was revealed through the by now updated Lunar Academy database before going to sleep. Confirming much that had already been said, there were scarcely any alterations that would have to be kept in mind. How the now six of them would interact and what their exact roles would be would have to depend on the circumstances of the mission at hand - something they would soon find out, she knew, as she stepped out with the Interface Suit fully in place; Wirbelwind's tornado emblem visible on both chest and glove. Thessalia gave a nod to each Squadmate when they arrived - the last to do so having barely a few seconds before yet another hiss could be heard; its direction indicating who would step through even before he did.

The Colonel hadn't even finished his shout of "Attention!" before Thessalia was already standing just so; awaiting the briefing that was to follow. As Colonel Landsfeldt then spoke up, the Swiss' thoughts quickly turned to their previous missions - and quickly narrowed the possibilities down. As the Colonel finished his words, Thessalia immediately gave a salute before, together with the rest of the Squad, stepping into the holo-chamber. A quicky glance around showed it to be empty, save for the six of them, much like expected. Preliminarily closing her eyes, she heard Richard speak up just moments later before a bright build-up began; its light remaining visible even through closed eyes as the empty white world around them changed into a holographically real one. Opening her eyes again, Thessalia immediately recognised the surrounding - which left only one mission in mind.

And indeed, as Richard got the holo-projector running correctly, the same map that had already once been shown to them onboard the same dropship was displayed; indicating it to be the same mission that had been aborted previously due to Karl's temporary reassignment. Richard and Jack - no longer Roman - must have recognised it just as easily, judging by the quick glances that went around. As Thessalia quickly scanned the image and text displayed, her mind was already focusing on the task that was to come - and how to accomplish it. Bringing back thoughts from the last time, she discarded or adjusted plans and ideas to fit with the new team constellation; integrating new parts with what she already knew about the three new members. Just in time, Richard then turned away from the holo-projector and towards the group; addressing the sergeant thereof.

"We'll be going with three groups," Thessalia began, stepping forward and toward the still occasionally flickering map. "Core, to focus around, Rapid, to respond to sudden changes, and Overwatch, to provide support and information," she said, holding up her right hand as she turned to face the group; extending a finger for each group mentioned. Retracting two, she then pointed at the middle brige of the three central ones. "Core will consist of Zhong and me. Our job will be to advance through the enemy lines and take on the opposition." A quick glance and nod went toward Hu-Shi as she mentioned her name, before moving to point toward the river bank just east of the same bridge; circling the area. "Overwatch will be Ivanova and Jack. Your job will be fire support and information relay." Again, she gave a quick nod toward the two; her previous circle indicating the approximate area in which a fire support position could be established for the operation to follow - that Jack would be in the midst of the enemy lines needed no mention.

Moving her finger to the eastern-most of the three central bridges, she traced a line from the Saurid-held end of it toward the center. "Rapid will be Williams and Feuer. Your job will be to distract the enemy, take out what you can quickly and get out of trouble before it gets too hot," she finished; once more nodding toward the two. "We'll be moving north to south, as circumstances allow, as the matriarch will most likely be behind their lines. The eastern part should allow good covering fire with few obstacles but enough cover. Overwatch, we'll need your information for where to go and where to strike. Rapid, try to stay close to Core, we don't want to get too separated. Everything else will be determined on the ground," Thessalia ended, casting a glance at each of the five squad members - and remaining just a moment longer on Jack; a silent reminder of what was expected of him, before going on.

"Anything to add?"

Roman stood alone in the locker room. The rest of his team, both the new and old, had already headed into the changing stations to get outfitted in their interface suits. Roman was planted firmly outside his own room, hand raised and hovering inches in front of the gel pad that would allow him entry. He was scared. Not of the mission ahead, but what would happen after. This would be the first time in over a month that Jack would be interacting with anyone besides Richard and Thessalia. The last time he had been introduced to new people, instant enemies had been made, and hell brought upon Roman for it. Of course, since then, there had been a few changes. Thessalia being the biggest of them all. The addition of her presence seemed to effect Jack in a way that Roman had not predicted, even past the point where she had agreed to 'become Roman's friend'. She was the only person that Jack seemed to not regularly insult every time he opened his mouth. He was always as close to polite as Jack could even manage. The most strange, is that he actually followed any of her directions, given to Roman or himself. At least, he did when it came to personal relationships. Of course, that had been during the time in which Miromi, Karl, and Douglas had still been on the team. Jack had managed to cause quite a lot of damage before he finally mellowed out with Thessalia's guidance. Now though, was a different story. There wee three new people for him to abuse, and despite Thessalia pulling Roman aside to give Jack a warning earlier in the morning, Roman didn't think it would be of much help.

With a loud sigh, Roman finally let his hand connect with the gel pad. The familiar hiss of the door allowed Roman entry and he begrudgingly stepped forward. With a small hop, Roman jumped onto the raised circular dais and moved to place his feet in the proper places, indicated by two small grooves in the floor. None of Roman's usual nervousness was present as he waited for the machine to start up. His worry about Jack managed to kill any of his usual dislike of this process. A crystal clear mechanical voice rang out in the room as the changing machine was finally ready to begin.

"SCANNING NOW."

A thin stalk with a small camera lends descended from the ceiling and came to a stop just in front of Roman. A razor thin blue light was emitted from the tip and projected at his feet, before slowly rising up his body. Upon reaching the top, the small camera moved with the light, going up and over Roman's head to travel down his backside to the floor once more. Once finished, the light cut of, and a small beep echoed throughout the chamber as the small camera retracted into the ceiling. There was a brief moment of silence.

"THE SUBJECT IS JACK ROMAN. FIRST YEAR. HEIGHT 1.86 METERS. PLEASE CONFIRM."

"Affirmative..." Roman answered in his usual mutter.

'CONFORMATION RECEIVED. PLEASE LIFT YOUR ARMS TO YOUR SIDES."

Silently and obediently, Roman lifted his arms out and aloft and held them there as the machine went to work. Numerous ports in the ceiling opened up, as mechanical arms descended from them, some holding pieces of the black carapace that was the interface suit, while others were there just to help get it on. The first to be put on were the gloves — the small electric wisp that was the emblem of Spirit shone on the back in it's full glory. Once his hand was inserted inside, Roman wiggled his fingers to insure a snug fit. Following the gloves was the rest of the interface armor: a chest plate, shin guards, arm guards, boots, and numerous other small pieces. They all overlapped together with an underlining of connecting mesh to create a tight fitting body suit that was both mobile and protective. The primary job of the suit was to allow the pilot to directly integrate with his A.W.E., allowing completely control with minimal effort, but in a pinch, the suit was strong enough to withstand small arms fire in the event they were forced to leave their machine. Once all the pieces were firmly in place, the arms retracted once more, only for the small camera to appear again. A second wave of scanning took place for the machine to make sure that the process was perfect. With a second beep, the camera vanished once more into the ceiling as the mechanical voice rang once once more.

"COMPLETED."



Roman held a hand to his head as he lined up next to his teammates where were adorning their own interface suits. The group was very quiet and polite, despite the loud argument that had taken place the night before. Something about tea versus coffee. Roman hadn't payed it much attention, instead using it as cover to slip into the kitchen to make dinner for everyone in piece and quiet. That, of course, didn't stop the new Chinese woman from popping in, insisting that he eat once of her cookies, but she was easy enough to brush off and she didn't come back afterwards. Dinner had not halted the argument either, which was lucky, as it meant that Roman had been able to keep himself unnoticed there too. It hadn't stopped afterwards either, although at this point, Roman wasn't sure if it was about tea anymore, and just general banter. Not that he cared; it allowed him to head into his bed and do the required reading on his new teammate's machines for Jack that would be needed the next day. Now though, the air between the team was completely different. It was charged with the anticipation of what was to come. It came with a loud hiss, as the blast doors to the simulation area opened, showing a lone figure standing in the hallway. Colonel Lansfeldt, standing in his full uniform adorned with countless medals of his bravery and skill, called for attention as he clasped his mechanical hands behind his back. His speech was short, and simple: none of these missions were to be taken lightly, and most importantly, work together as a team to get through them. It was an obvious jibe at their previous lack of teamwork, but it was nonetheless completely true. Once sure that the message had sunken in, the old man stepped to the side, allowing entry to the arena.



Roman's hand was still pressed firmly to his head as the spikes of pain shot through it. Jack was doing his best to assert his influence, but for now, Roman wanted to make sure he kept his mouth shut. If the only way to do that was the pain, he would take it. The brilliantly white flash of the arena that was the changing of scenery caused Roman to shift the hand momentarily to his eyes, only for it to return a second later as his surroundings took form around him. It was a familiar one. The pain stopped as Roman and Jack both took in the scene of the frigate battle room that was the drop ship for a mission he had nearly been on before. This was the same room he had been in right before Karl was taken away to join Douglas' team. It was also the same room that had appeared before the horrible argument with Miromi that had cemented her and Jack's relationship of mutual dislike. It was a surprising choice from the Colonel, considering the previous first mission the full team had been given was a simple battle with another team to test their skills. Scarlett had been on the team back then, although she had been pulled shortly after. Perhaps someone would be this time as well?

A loud clang made Roman's eyes snap towards the sound in the center of the room where Richard had kicked a large table set in the center of the command room. The pain once again blasted through his mind in full, as Roman could feel Jack burning to say something. Roman kept up his guard. Not yet. With the holo-table now working once again, despite all logic that it should, Roman looked down at the map of the mission area. It was only a breif glance, as Richard then began to talk. The jab of pain that shot through Roman's head was too much. Reluctantly, Roman stopped fighting. His eyes began to roll upwards as the switch began to take place. After a second, they snapped back down, although his pupils were much wider for a brief period before returning to their usual shape.

A sarcastic smile made it's way onto Jack's face, directed firmly at Richard. "As usual, violence is your go-to solution," Jack said, his tone equaling his expression, "And that idea is incredibly stupid, and you know it." Jack could feel the eyes of Thessalia on the back of his head, which prompted a small chuckle, but nonetheless made him go silent once more. She then began to relay her own plan, to which Jack listened, although it didn't appear as if he did. His gaze was focused on his new teammates. So, these were the people he was to be saddled with? Well, at least they didn't seem to be a second Karl or Miromi. Well, the German could possibly pull a decent impression of the former, but something told him that he was at least smarter than Karl if nothing else. Once Thessalia stopped talking, Jack broke his stare at the newcomers, and turned to look at her. Her own returned gaze made him laugh.

"Well, aside from the laughable team names, the plan seems decent enough," Jack said once his chuckle died away, before jabbing a thumb over at Sasha, "That being said, I'm not sure why I'm saddled with Twinkle-toes in terms of a 'team.' Our jobs are just a little bit different, considering all information I can give is going to be redundant, and my role at this point is going to be more of an assassin." Jack shrugged. "But, whatever; it's a minor thing. A more important one at hand is this." Jack once again turned to look at his new teammates. "I don't believe I managed to introduce myself properly yesterday. My name is Jack and my hobbies include piloting A.W.E.s and living inside my own head." Following his cryptic words, an exaggerated bow was accompanied by another quick laugh as Jack watched to see their reactions. Hopefully this group was going to be an interesting one.

"SCANNING NOW."

As she raised her wiry arms, Sasha closed her heavy-lidded eyes against the razor-wire laser that crawled across her lean form. Still as a statue, arms at her side, the familiar feeling of being weighed, judged and evaluated pressed in upon her, and she was not concerned. It was part and parcel with her passion--being a dancer was not, as many seemed to think, for the faint of heart. The conditioning, the diet, the exercise, the repetition, and then to have all of it be put into a purely aesthetic context was grueling. Plenty didn't make it, even plenty who wanted it desperately, but nothing had kept Sasha from perfection in her old career--even at her young age, it was still how it occurred to her--and nothing was going to keep her from it in this one. All it took was a different set of muscles, exercises, a different diet. Like changing her clothes.

"THE SUBJECT IS SASHA IVANOVA. FIRST YEAR. 1.75 METERS. PLEASE CONFIRM."

"Affirmative."

As she wriggled her way into her armor, let it bolt itself down around her, the same claustrophobia she had felt the first time she'd been saddled with the heavy equipment rose. A dancer, as many pointed out, was hardly used to wearing armor, let alone piloting one of the heaviest A.W.E.'s around, but she crushed it with the same iron-veiled discipline she always had. This mattered, her hang-ups didn't. It was as simple as that. The others...well, they mattered insofar as she could trust them to hold up their end. Teamwork was a matter of course--you did it because it was the job, and it was professional, and Sasha like the idea of being a young consummate professional. That the rest of her team, or much of it, had failed at this in the past was something she ignored even as it made itself apparent last night. The English boy and his tea, the German boy and his coffee... it was hard for her to consider herself on either side, though coffee at least kept her awake. By the time the others had gone to bed she remained in the common room, doing a few simple exercises and going over air-burst geometry in her head. She slept very little, ate very little, and if she had seemed relaxed it was only because the banter between them all was the least important thing in the room.

---

The colonel was his usual colorless self, adamant in steel grey and as authoritarian as it got. As much as it seemed an odd comparison, it felt natural enough to obey--he'd proven himself, they hadn't. Teacher and pupil, commanding officer and rookie, same difference... but it was irritating, quietly, that he reminded them again of the necessity of teamwork, of relying on one another. A mission was a mission, that was it--how much more of this talk was necessary? How remedial, she found herself wondering in spite of herself, was her team, to necessitate such reminders? As they slid into the Simulation Room, however, it became clear that this was not her companions first time at this simulation. Richard's familiarity with the machinery made that clear enough. And then Thessalia's plan came together, and things got a bit strange.

The wallflower--Roman?--all of a sudden decided to assert himself. His mannerism, body language, voice, all of it changed in an instant, and at once she felt almost at ease. Here, then, was why they kept him around. Perhaps in the face of danger he...

Completely changed personalities and names.

"How they let you past the psyche eval I'll never know," she said flatly, looking over the newly-arisen persona before turning to Thessalia, "but the clown is right. From what I understand of his profile, his A.W.E. is focused on stealth and has extremely limited shielding--not suitable for fire support. I propose that he join team Rapid instead, with the primary goal of reconnaissance and target neutralization. Likewise," she said as she moved for the map, "I propose a slightly different approach."

Moving to the hologram, she pressed a finger to the pair of buildings in the midst of the Saurian forces between the east and middle bridge, southwest of the Surian force there.

"Core team and I should deploy here. From the top of them I should be able to maintain a firing solution on most of the battlefield, and with the uplink from your units I will be able to monitor most of the field. Rapid--including Jack--will deploy near the eastern bridge and cut through the enemy behind us. Once they've been dispersed the Eastern defense forces would be able to advance to the structures and provide additional covering fire. From there Rapid team could continue South, pushing them into a concentrated group at the center. If we can concentrate them we can surround them, and heavy ordinance should do the rest." The thought that a different plan might be considered insubordination or an issue in the chain of command never occurred to her--she was simply, in her eyes, providing a tactical opinion as she turned and looked to Thessalia.

"It is riskier--I would have an enemy at my back, and it would require more prolonged combat from Core team, but I believe it better utilizes our drop capabilities and our team assets, as well as the defensive units already available. Your call, sergeant."

Today was going to be a good day. Wolf, almost giddy with excitement, had been one of the first to enter the armory. It had been ages since he had run a simulation, and the last one he had run had been done within the limited capacities of the simulation chamber his family’s company owned. Admittedly, the simplistic polygonal terrain still made some excellent obstacle courses, but this was a full military-grade chamber. This was going to be amazing compared to the low resolutions he had been dealing with.

He emerged from the armory donned in the familiar carapace he had worn so many times before. This specific set had been modified to jack into the dataport in his neck, simultaneously providing connection with the armor’s communication systems and bridging the gap between himself and the A.W.E. A cool, icy feeling caused him to shudder for a moment, before it faded, leaving him more or less flooded with information as he clicked the system on. He willed the onboard computer into quiet submission, eliminating all of the excess information he wouldn’t need, just as the Colonel entered the main staging area.

Wolf snapped his salute, already annoyed once again at the military protocol that had been forced on him since he started piloting A.W.E.’s. He nevertheless listened to the Colonel’s speech anyways, raising an eyebrow as he mentioned the familiarity of the mission. Wolf erred on the side of caution and guessed it would be completely unfamiliar to him, given his new arrival with the group. He closed his eyes at the warning, grateful for the chance to do so, and a blinding light filled the chamber around him. He opened his eyes as the light dimmed to see a near-derelict briefing room with a faulty projector. He watched with bemusement as Richard fiddled with the machine, and chuckled a little as a swift kick brought the projector into working order.

The mission briefing flashed across the screens, and Wolf quickly committed the details to memory - specifically, his computer's memory. He payed special attention to the juicy bits - gravity was just a tad higher than on Earth, so he'd have to remember to account for that. This would be against Saurids, apparently -nasty buggers, from what he'd been told, but he'd never fought one. They were supposed to be a hell of a fight at melee ranges, so he'd have to adjust his combat style accordingly.

He began formulating potential strategies and battle plans in his head, as he listened to the suggestions of the others. His own analysis of the map told him several important things. It was very obvious that the human forces were heavily outnumbered, at least if the sizes of the blotches were any indication. The Saurids probably employed swarm tactics - perfect for his loadout, but potentially a problem for some of the others on his team. He hoped he wasn't wrong, but it was entirely possible. One other fact came to his attention - the red blotch at the center was by far the largest. If their goal was to take out the Matriarch, he'd bet money that she was either in or just behind that largest blotch. Right at the center of the Saurid force. Figures.

Richard's idea was sound, although Wolf was well aware that he and his HELIOS were just as suited, if not moreso for disruption tactics. A new voice sounded up from behind him, startling him mildly. Roman was suddenly much more...abrasive. Wolf shrugged and turned back to the center console to pay attetion to Thessalia's plan. It was sound, and she had likely come to the same solution he had about the location of the matriarch. He gave Richard a quick glance as it was revealed they would compose the Rapid team. Fire support would be Jack(?) and Ivanova. Ivanova he could unerstand - it was literally what her A.W.E. was designed for. Jack was more of an infiltrator though. Guess the meek boy probably didn't want to be on the front lines...

Roman suddenly spoke up again, voicing Wolf's own opinions on the matter of his positioning. Apparently meek was a relative term. Jack's introduction however, cause Wolf to form a silent O with his mouth as the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. Dissociative Personality disorder, huh? That explained an awful lot. At least, that's what he figured it was. It was the only thing that made any real sense.

He was going to speak up at that point, but Sasha decided to voice her own opinions before he could say anything. He plan was interesting - and completely off the handle. He liked a little bit of risk, but there was a difference between calculated risk and suicide. "If you wanted to commit suicide, you should have just requested to drop without an A.W.E. at all." He stepped up to the map himself now. "Theoretically, you could drop into the middle of enemy lines, but personally, I'd rather be fighting in one direction at a time." He paused to look at the map for a minute longer, before placing his finger onto the initial deployment spot for Core. "Just saying, before we go charging into this headlong, we should make sure we actually know how we act as a team before doing something high risk. I'd like to propose a full-team drop here-" he swept his finger eastward and around the main force. "and Rapid can cut around and run disruption along the eastern lines. Let's not forget we have allies on the ground already - if we can assist their push, we'll make it a lot furthur in the end." He mimicked Sasha as he finished. "Your call, Sergeant." If Thessalia got pissed at him for interrupting, oh well.

Today was mission day! Yay! The first chance to see how her new comrades will do in a simulated combat environment! Though Hu-Shi had previously experienced the rather interesting holographic simulations of Lunar Academy through her one-on-one combat simulations, this would most definitely be the first time that she would be doing anything that involved 'hard' tactics and strategy. It was pretty exciting, really, if also a teensy bit nerve-wracking. While she was fairly confident that no one would verbally abuse her if she didn't confirm a kill or whatever, she wanted to make a good first impression combat-wise. When it came to peer evaluations, she didn't want to be the only person who got 80%, after all. Being the last person to get into the changing rooms, she took a deep breath, placing one hand over her heart to steady her heartbeat, and then, for just a moment, imagined how nice it would be to finally relieve some stress. Then, she started up the sequence to fit her into the exoskeleton-like interface suit.

“Scanning Now.”

She wondered if everyone else was as excited and awake as she was. Last night's coffee vs tea debate did last a long time, after all, and unlike herself, they've all probably been through dozens of these simulations already. Hopefully everyone would be energetic and ready to go. Seemed like the coffee lovers would be alright in the morning at least. That thought brought a smile on her lips, as a thousand unseen lasers rang over her body.

“Subject unconfirmed. Rescanning.”

Hu-Shi sighed, forced her smile away, and waited patiently as the process was redone.

“The subject is Hu-Shi Zhong. First Year. Height: 1.651 meters. Please confirm.”

She wondered why the machines would need something such as verbal confirmation, when it could even tell identical twins apart, but it was a mystery that was clearly meant not to be solved. Chances were, it was just supposed to be for procedural reasons or something.

“Yep, that's me,” she said cheerily, talking to the machine as if it were human.

“Error. Unknown command. Please re-confirm.”

This machine...really had no flexbility, did it?

“...affirmative.”

“Confirmation received. Please lift your arms to your sides.”

A few minutes later, Hu-Shi was finally suited up and ready to go.
~
Soon after, the charmingly rugged, if not slightly 'alien' Colonel Landsfeldt made it into the room, all pistons and electricity. As always, the decorated military officer was impeccably dressed, with such a gravity to him that even Elizabethan era gentlemen would find hard to match. Or, at least, Hu-Shi thought that would be the case. It was sorta hard to compare a cyborg and a 16th era dandy, after all. Though brief, the man's speech was one that made an impact because of its brevity. All lives are equal, and self-sacrifice is something to be expected. Dangerous words, if comprehended improperly. Still, she nodded. Most likely, she would be the one that would end up dead so one of her teammates would survive. After all, that was her role, wasn't it? The whole concept of the Jiang Shi Core was 'self-sacrifice'. More speed to smash through enemy artillery. More shields to withstand blows in place of your lighter-armored allies. More energy for those who are running out.

She saluted in unison with the others, and then proceeded to follow Team One into a control room, one larger than the ones she was accustomed. Closing her eyes before Richard even spoke, even though she made sure to thank him for the warning regardless, Hu-Shi decided that the blonde bad boy really did have a nice side, however hidden it may be. First tea, then consideration for his teammates. What a stand-up guy. Though the retina-burning whiteness did turn her vision a shade of green when she reopened her eyes, it was nothing major, and the Chinese AWE pilot rubbed her eyes a few more times to get the itchiness out of them, before taking a look around. A rather atmospheric room, it was. Appeared like one of those Middle Eastern battlezone places that one of her Battlefield-obsessed friends used to love playing. After the British boy kicked the table-shaped hologram projector, it soon became clear what the mission was.

They were on another planet, one that was filled to the brim with aliens. An infestation of Saurids, lizard-like beings that operated based off a hive mind, if she remembered her biology classes properly. They have no eyes, making dark areas an exceptionally bad place to fight them, and optical camouflage is generally useless due to their ability to detect heat and track based off scent. If the pilot bleeds, it is instrumental to wash and seal the wound immediately, before getting rid of the lingering odor. Due to the hive mind's signals being that of a biological nature, there was no way to get ahead of whatever their Matriarch plans by intercepting their signals or what-not. Generally, a massive pain in the ass if one is defending against an invasion of those overgrown pests.

However, the terrain was that of a savannah. And even better, it was a place with roads and bridges.

In other words, the ideal location for the Chrome Ex-Road to make its teamplay debut.

While others discussed strategy, Hu-Shi was more curious in regards to Roman's sudden shift in personality. It was almost like those internet tough guys. In real life, they were shy and submissive, but the moment they have some sort of 'armor' to protect their identity and their selves, they suddenly become aggressive and abrasive. So Jack Roman was that type of person, was he? Truly, Canadians were an odd race of people. Must have been all the maple syrup and hockey. Even though the former WAS quite good.

Deciding that she might as well say a bit about herself, just in case it may be useful in any way, Hu-Shi coughed slightly and interjected, “Excuse me, I'm not sure if it would be of any major benefit, but considering the high energy consumption of the Rapid team and the lack of enemy AWEs, I would suggest that the Core team and Rapid team rendezvous a few times. My Chrome Ex-Road has an extra energy core, and it would probably be helpful if Richard and Wolf would be able to continue going on for even a few minutes longer in their disruption.”

“Also, I think that it should be noted that my AWE uses tank treads for movement, meaning that it can carry heavy loads with less strain than a bipedal AWE. In terms of sustained movement, it should be good in this situation. Just two bits that you might find helpful when developing a team strategy, Sergeant Minari. I'm no good with thinking up strategies and plans myself.”

As expected, Richard's plan was shut down. Of course, he had never meant to purposely sacrifice himself, it was just a conversation starter of sorts. What was the old saying? It was better to have 100 daggers poised at your back than one pointed at each of your friends? Thankfully, the other members of the team made their contributions, but Richard remained silent, scratching his cleanshaven chin as he studied the ever shifting tides of battle. Only once did he pause to direct a sardonic smile and look at Jack, indicating that he did indeed know that it was a bad idea, but he swiftly returned to studying the hololith. While Richard had been versed in tactics, he was only proficient at individual ones, given his position and regular purpose. He would be of little help here, but he could do some other things, given this simulation...things which would be much more useful. Taking note of the spoken plans, Richard tapped the side of his head, activating the communications bead which came with the carapace suit. The voices of his comrades were echoed in his ear as their squad radio relayed the words to him.

"Energy shouldn't be too much of a problem," Richard said as he tapped the computer in his wrist, bringing up a holographic plan of the DEMON which rotated silently, its arms splayed to the side, "I have a pair of TOMB batteries which will sustain me for long enough, or at least until I find a generator or some other such area to resupply my power." Looking over to Wolf, he nodded. "The German's Helios should also use the same interface jack that my DEMON uses, given the manufacturer," he added as he speciified the TOMB battery plan, bringing into focus, "as long as I can find an alternate energy source, the CANNIBAL system should keep us going." Closing the plans, the Englishman once more studied the map, squinting as the red bulges seemed to grow. "I'll leave you guys to do the greater planning, but I'll keep listening in on the comms channel. Keep me informed," he said as he stood up straight, "I'll go try and liaison with forces already on the ground, and prep our transport. Hopefully the Thunderbolts and Sparrows are in good condition." Taking a step back, he nodded once, before disappearing into the depths of the ship.

Thankfully, the ship they were on was built according to standard plans, and so Richard found it relatively easy to navigate his way through the twisting corridors. The ship was occupied by an entire Naval complement, who saluted him as he passed. The petty officers directed him towards the communications hub, and the Englishman soon found an area which reeked of human habitation. The stale stench of sweat was rank in the small white room, while empty ration tins and dreary look in the combined communications officers' eyes suggested they worked, ate and slept at their stations. Organised chatter rang from mouth to mouth as they co-ordinated with forces on the ground. Here, one officer authorised an orbital bombardment of a small village which had been overrun, while another was responding to a request for reinforcements. Finding an officer who was focussed on their area of engagement, Richard gently tapped him on the shoulder. "I require your assistance," he said bluntly to the man as he looked at the screen, which was barely moving. The balance of forces was quite even. Startled, the little pale man jumped back, his skin tone and odd body shape suggesting that he had been born ship side. "S-Sir?" he asked as he looked back at the Englishman. In the Terran military, A.W.E pilots, even the lowliest cadet, was given a healthy respect, and given their pedigree and schooling, this was only to be expected. "Get me into contact with the overall commander of the ground operation," Richard said as he studied the unshifting patterns on the screen. At the same time, the discussion of tactics was still raging in his earbead. "That...that would be...Colonel Montague, sir..." the communications officer said as he turned back to the theatre of operations. "Patch him into a channel with me," Richard said, pulling a small black wire from a compartment in his chest. The officer, thankfully, complied, plugging him into the console, before rapidly chattering some unknown cant into a microphone. "Everyone be quiet," Richard said into his commbead, silencing his teammates. As an afterthought, he patched them into the channel. While they would be unable to make comment, they would be able to hear the conversation.

"Colonel Montague, this is A.W.E. Cadet Richard Williams contacting you from the 'King Marlon II' currently in orbit around your position-" Richard started, before he was interrupted by a brash voice that sounded like it was in horrible pain. "It's about fecking time I got some help down here!" it shouted before groaning in pain, "Montague is dead, and has been for three feckin days." Calmly Richard focussed on the man's voice. "May I ask who I'm addressing then?" Richard replied, his voice almost infuriatingly at peace. "My name is Lietenant Scikkor, ah feck that hurts!" was his reply, followed by a wincing sound as the man on the other end tended to his wound. A lietenant was the overall commander? Richard growled. That wasn't good. That means the Saurids had managed to knock over a large portion of high command in the area. That meant they had no company structure anymore, probably just a few isolated platoons fighting to stay alive. "Leftenant, stay with me," Richard said, his voice calm and soothing, "I require your assistance to deploy our unit effectively "JUST GET THEM FECKING DOWN HERE!" Scikkor shouted. Richard gritted his teeth as the commbead screamed into his ear. "At this point we might not even be coming down, Leftenant," Richard replied smoothly, his cadence unbroken and serene. There was a moment of silence as Richard's words sunk in, broken only by the hard breathing of the Lieutenant and intermittent winces. "How...how can I help?" answered a meek voice on the other line. Like Richard had thought. If there was the threat of no help, it would calm the man down. Or at least scare him into compliance.

"First, give me a rundown on the enemy forces," Richard said as he brought up the the Grimoire Biologicos, "what creatures do you see?" The pause on the other side seemed to stretch into eternity. "I dunno what they're called, sir, weren't taught this in training," Scikkor replied. "A description will suffice, Lieutenant."
"Well...most of em seem to be this...weird dog...thing, but on two legs. They've got claws...long claws..." Following his description, Richard brought up an article that was relayed to his comrades.

Name:
Saurid Serrasalmus "Tearers"
Classification:
Melee infantry
Subspecies:
Saurid Clavada "Slimers"
Saurid Clupeidae "Swarmers"
Information:
One of the lower tier units, the colloquially known "Tearers" are basic melee infantry which use swarm tactics to overrun their enemies. Of particular importance is their talons, which are known to tear through Mk II Battle armour with little difficulty.
"Oh, then there are those dog things again...but they only have two legs, but their mouth...its bigger...and it shoots...slime...but that shit burns..."

Name:
Saurid Clavada "Slimers"
Classification:
Ranged Infantry
Subspecies:
Saurid Serrasalmus "Tearers"
Saurid Clupeidae "Swarmers"
Information:
A simple adaptation of the "Tearers", the slimers have forgone talons in favour of using the biomass in order to create glands of acidic spit which their fire from their oral orifices. This 'slime' is similar to human phlegm and is capable of melting through gunmetal, but Mk II battle armour seems to provide some protection. Beware that shooting these creatures in the head may release the slime prematurely.
The Lieutenant was about to say more, but was interrupted as another voice filtered in through the comms. "Lieutenant! They're starting to break through!" it cried urgently. "Close up ranks and intensify fire!" Scikkor shouted back, before seeming to turn his attention back to Richard. "I don't care what else you need, please...I'm begging you...We need you donw here...I have a wife and kids to provide for...I can't die on this shithole he-"
"I'll do what I can, Leftenant," Richard said, cutting him off before he got all emotional. Disconnecting himself from the console, Richard nodded his head to the operator before stalking away towards the drop bays. "You heard him ladies and gents, we need to get down there soon. Things are getting desparate. I'll start maintenance, but get down here quick."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time everyone else arrived, Richard was already finishing off mainenance, making sure that all pods were primed and ready. "Fuels all dandy, reverse thrusters are reading operational, and I've calibrated most consoles so that we drop in generally the right place. Feel free to alter the co-ordinates," he said as he checked the crash webbing one one of the drop capsules, tugging it with great force and making sure it did not snap. "I also took the liberty of installing smoke launchers into the overhead. All you need to do is trigger them with the console." Turning to Wolf, he smiled. "Course we're a bit different," he said, tapping the larger launcher in their pod. "Skyshard shrapnel launchers to help us clear our landing zone. We'll probably drop right into the thick of em."

Stepping away as he admired his handiwork, he turned to the squad. "Right...should we suit up then?"

Having turned back to the assembled squad after putting forth her plan, Thessalia was little surprised to see Jack being the first to step up to speak - or at his words. What he raised was, however, a valid point - Nephesh was hardly an A.W.E. suited for combat and ULANOVA would already be able to provide both Fire Support and On-Site Intelligence. At the same time, however, the only options were to either place him in Rapid to give them some immediate reconnaisance or to place him in Overwatch to offer a second set of eyes on the front lines and, if necessary, some additonal firepower. The choice had been, from Thessalia's perspective, the lesser of two evils - after all, there simply were some situations in which certain skillsets were of little use; instead needing to be appropriated as best as possible. Aside from that, however, he also introduced himself - without any restraint to his situation as, essentially, Roman's other mental half. Thessalia suppressed a sigh at that - not for the unexpected frankness, but rather the aftermath that would surely follow once Roman was back in place after that announcement.

Sasha, meanwhile, was the second to raise her voice - in incredulity at Jack's sudden change before noting much the same process of thoughts that had already occured to Thessalia in regards to Jack's team assignment to Overwatch rather than Rapid. In addtion, she also proposed a different approach to the situation as a whole - rather than deploy behind friendly lines and approach from there, she suggested dropping straight into the action; most likely to use the disruption caused by their orbital drop to allow them to gain the upper hand in the initiative and act on it; Rapid doing much the same on the other side of the battle lines in order to initiate a pincer-like attack on the Saurids between Core and Rapid while she provided Fire Support as needed. As she said - risky, with a chance of greater pay off. Thessalia, having followed both her words and motions towards the holo-projector, merely kept her eyes slightly narrowed in thought at the input - even as Richard already took his leave; keeping abreast of the tactics through the comms system.

In an almost surprising move, Wolfgang spoke up after Sasha - but not in agreement but rather advocating a more cautious approach; thereby echoing some of the thoughts that had lead Thessalia to choose it over a more aggressive option in the first place: lack of training as a team. Especially considering what it had done to the previous constellation of Squad One, she was not exactly willing to go forth with a plan that relied fully on close-knit teamwork right from the get-go such as a frontline drop - even though she had still thought that Wolfgang would have been in full support of such a course of action as it would have got him into the thick of combat even faster. Eager, but not hot-headed would seem more accurate.

Another voice came up after the German - Hu-Shi's, as she noted two details: Chrome Ex-Road's ability to dispense energy to the less efficient units of Rapid and its unusual methods of locomotion, given its tracked rather than bipedal stature - though the latter would not be much of a hindrance given the generally urban combat zone. The former, meanwhile, was kept in mind - though Thessalia would prefer that they got the operation done within the team's fuel limits. Even so, however, it would be a good option to have in case of unexpected hindrances - much like the suggested rendezvous between Core and Rapid in the field; either being able to lend a hand to the other if necessary.

Following the four, the comms came to life again - as Richard called for silence. Judging by the time he'd been gone, he was either in the comms central of the dropship or the drop bay - meaning he was either about to establish contact or there was some problem with the drop pods. Fortunately, it turned out to be the former when the Englishman hailed the ground forces. The conversation that followed made a few things quite clear - for one, the situation on the ground was getting desperate. For another, the Saurids were mainly composed of a mix of talon-armed Tearers and acid-spitting Slimers - hopefully meaning that there wouldn't be any nasty surprises waiting for them further behind the Saurid lines. With a final word of hurry, Richard cut off communications from his side; seeing to it that the drop procedures would go as smoothly as possible.

A chuckle came from one of the four - not unlike a few before - before Jack spoke up once more; his face showing amusement that seemed to stem from several sources. "Your ideas are all well and nicely thought out, but your plan is going to go straight down the toilet once we do enough damage that the Matriarch starts calling for a regroup. The Saurids are not exactly hunters and brilliant tacticians. They are more like locusts; they attack in swarm and without strategy. When around their queen though, they turn into something more akin to the highly militarized and much more painful, bees. We need to thin out the herd as much as possible and stop them from gathering around their general the queen." Putting aside the occasional gesture that accompanied his words, there was a truth to them - the behaviour was much akin to a cornered animal fighting even more ferociously; if on a larger scale. The look that Jack, having said his part, was giving Thessalia made clear that he expected her to take over from there - the question merely remaining, how.

All told, it came down to two options - getting in and out before the Saurids had a chance to form up or taking the long road and cutting down their numbers as much as possible. Neither option, however, much appealed - the former could come apart if they hit unexpected obstacles whilst the latter would require extended combat from all sides. Casting a glance to the holo-projected map, Thessalia spoke up; her voice still calm - rather than being angered by the words of the others, she had much rather taken them into consideration, it would seem. "We're going with the original deployments. Jack, your focus will be finding the Matriarch and covering blind spots. Ivanova, I trust you'll know where to take up position based on the circumstances," she announced; making certain that they would be going with near front line drops rather than going straight into Saurid forces as well as clearing up that Jack would remain on Overwatch and that Sasha could take up whichever position afforded her the best point of view in both intel gathering and laying down fire.

"We're doing a close to front line drop, so there won't be much time to get ready after landing. Primary objectives are locating and destroying the Matriarch. How we'll proceed will be determined on site. Secondary objectives are elimination of the Saurid forces and the relieving of the Defense Forces. If all goes to plan, we should be done before needing to refuel, but stay alert for anything unexpected once we're down there," Thessalia finalised; giving an occasional glance to the four gathered squad members when their respective input became apparent through the orders. Rather than wait for a second round of input to her words, she then raised her hand in the direction of the door leading to the drop bay.

"Squad One, get ready for Orbital Drop."

Ah, so the sprinter had the ability to refuel as well, was it? Though Hu-Shi had her doubts about how well or consistent power generators were when the battlefield had already been well-overrun by the Saurid horde, she kept those thoughts to herself. Ideally, she'd like to have the Jiang Shi core at full charge in case she needed the extra shielding or power, but if they couldn't find the queen of this reptilian anthill in time, it would be better spent making sure that everyone could still move their AWEs. As Richard left, the Chinese girl decided, he brows furrowing almost unnoticeably, that, until the Matriarch was within firing range, she'll hold off using the Jiang Shi core for herself. Well, it would be a fun mission regardless.

A few minutes later, the communication channel went online again, establishing the fact that Richard had gotten in contact with an individual that was obviously very important to the ground forces that they would be soon joining. Named himself as Lieutenant Scikkor, ethnicity unrecognizable. Perhaps European? His last name sounded somewhat like Scipio, after all. An agitated individual, one that made Hu-Shi want to speak to, to calm down with her words, and perhaps serve some tea to. Well...a shame that he was only part of the simulation, to test the cadet's ability to deal with aggravating individuals. Tests that she could pass easily, considering her background. Still, it hailed some good information for the battle to come. The Saurids had mutated into melees who could rip through armor, and acid-spitters who could be annoying. Shield maintenance would be important, but with a good charge, she should be able to get to the Slimers easily, and then butcher them.

It would be what happened after the momentum of the cavalry was lost that things could get scary.

Well, it must have been scarier for a man with a family to fight without being encased in an AWE against those monsters. Even when none of this was real. Even when virtual deaths meant nothing. Even though this was training to make them think of 'real' deaths as nothing as well. Ah...Hu-Shi hoped that the Lieutenant would survive this simulation, if nothing else. She was pointlessly shallow like that.

The words of Thessalia brought her back out of her thoughts, as the strategy was confirmed once more. Jack Roman, the split-personality boy, would be working to find, and perhaps assassinate, the Queen. The rest would be dropping near the front lines, so they would have a few more moments to prepare, before engaging the enemy. Nothing as crazy as dropping into the thick of the hornet's nest then. With the first order of suiting up, and the reveal that Richard was also a man who knew his machines (or at least enjoyed calibrating all of them), she happily followed the lead of Thessalia into the drop bay. She breathed in the noticeably different air, marvelled once more at how realistic everything was, before entering into the metallic capsule, perhaps a coffin, that was marked as her own.

Within, the Chrome Ex-Road, shiny and red like a tank that was masquerading as a sports car, stood. It towered above her at three meters, and its smooth curves and angles simply looked fabulous. What a pretty machine. It'll be dusty soon, and then it'll be slick with blood, but that was fine. That was part of the deal. And it would be good stress relief, pounding down on what were obviously enemies of humanity. The Dragon Slayers, massive swords that cleaved evil, were held at the AWE's sides. Using one of them as a foothold, she gracefully climbed up onto the top of the colossal mass of gears and pistons, before placing her left hand firmly against the domed top of the Chrome Ex-Road. For a moment, a warm sensation enveloped the surface of her hand, before a translucent 'OK' showed up on the silvery surface, and the dome opened, up, revealing the dark interior. Sliding in and sitting down on the soft seating of her AWE, a seat that was just a bit above the gatling gun hidden inside the AWE, Hu-Shi groped around until the grooved gloves and boots of her interface suit locked into the positions that the limb-control and motion interfaces of the Chrome Ex-road were.

All that was left was for the dome overhead to seal and click once more, turning transparent in the process. As the whole machine hummed into life, a mechanical safety harness held her in place, and the transparent screen started to read out the current condition of the AWE.

All clear in all ways.

As a final test, Hu-Shi brought up her comm online, and with a cheery smile, said, “This is Chrome Ex-Road, ready to drop! Good luck and stay sharp, everybody!”

Sasha didn't mind that her plan wasn't accepted.

Really. Yes, the split personality boy was rude about it, but when it all came to the wire who care. If the rest of the team didn't think they could act like one then it wouldn't have worked regardless, so what more was there to say? Either way, a drop close to the front lines would work just fine--she had the Valentin to clear the ranks, her allies in front of her for easy integration and the hole battlefield to take advantage of. Obviously she'd need to move to higher ground and some point, but she was confident in her ability to master the situation and deploy fire as necessary. For her part, it was a simple matter for Sasha--do the damn job. Teamwork was a necessity, personal sacrifice a given, so do it. Sometimes she thought that they had put her in a fire support role so that she wouldn't be tempted to bogart the melee performance, as she knew would likely be her tendency--she worked well as the focal point of a plan, but was too used to accepting the position and capitalizing on it. Better, perhaps, for her to be back in a support role for the sake of removing her ego from the equation. Not that she thought much of this; work with givens.

The given reason she was piloting the Ulanova was made clear as soon as they were dismissed for their A.W.E's. If it wasn't quite as massive as Hu-Shi's Chrome Ex-Road, the Ulanova was a hulking machine some 2+ meters high. Roughly proportioned like a man, it bristled with armaments, armor and sensory equipment beneath it's matte-iron exterior, it's primary weapon stored read-for-access across it's back. As she moved to settle herself inside, she was reminded again why it took grace to maximize the machine's bulky potential--it's gyroscopic stabilizers were shit. Whoever developed it had loaded it to the gils with weapons, ammunition, armor... but they'd forgotten to take some basic ergonomic suggestions into consideration and accepted it's role as what amounted to a mobile turret. Sure, it would walk and move just fine with the installed limiters in place, but it would plot along like a wooden man, little better than a drone. It was only with a pilot that knew how to balance the weight, knew how to move with it and carry it, sway with it and swing with it that it could run, jump, dash and dodge when necessary without falling on their face.

And Sasha was nothing if not familiar with it, by now.

"This is Ulanova, ready to drop." She said simply as she bolted herself in, the armor securing her within the surprisingly comfortable interior and connecting via various interface nodes, the HUD coming to life as it began the integration subroutines with her comrades and the equipment on the field. It wouldn't be long before he had a better grasp on the action than the men on the ground, and that was just how she liked it. Flexing massive fingers and feeling the servos hum around her hands, she smiled.

Time to get stuck in with the boys.

Strategy had always been a strong point of Wolf’s interests. He wasn’t the best, but he loved playing out each scenario in his mind, and as each of the team’s members contributed their own thoughts, he imagined all the different ways each could go right – or wrong. The fact that Hu-Shi’s A.W.E. used tank treads would play an important factor in the future – here, however, it would be useful mostly for crushing the occasional abandoned car underfoot. Small cars, anyway. The fact that she carried extra batteries, however, was extremely valuable – the Helios’s insane speeds came with a heavy cost, in the form of a very fast energy burn, as much so as the DEMON that Richard piloted.

Speaking of which…the team went silent as Richard opened communications with the ground forces. The situation was grim – they were already down to a Lieutenant in charge. His computer system immediately pulled up the relevant information, including background and location, but there was nothing important, so he banished the information. The description of Saurids, however, was much more important – and even before Richard relayed the articles, Wolf already had the information locked in his mind. Disruption would be more important than ever here – the slimers wouldn’t be much issue, unless their aim was perfect, but getting too close to the Tearers would be bad news for the Rapid team.

Thessalia locked in the final plans, much to his enjoyment. It would be an on-the-fly mission – his favorite kind. Then came the words he had been waiting to hear for hours now – “Squad One, get ready for Orbital Drop.” Wolf let slip an almost Feral grin, and joined the team in the rush to the Drop Bays. Richard was waiting for them, and was just finishing his maintenance checks. Smoke launchers for all…except the two of them. Wolf grinned again, knowing what the Skyshards could do, and what they meant. His blood was flowing hot now.

Wolf walked up to his own machine, the front face split open to allow him to step in. He ran a hand along the gleaming red curve of the arm, before turning to face out and stepping back into the exoskeleton, as he had done so many times before. Mechanical locks clicked in place, as the entire machine close around him, and he felt a familiar *zitch!* as the neural bridge connected him to the suit. Sensors along the entire suit came to life, and he was no longer Wolf, piloting a suit – he was Helios. With a thought, he extended heat expulsion plates along the entire curvature of the frame, causing the entire machine to appear to ripple, and the mounted guns lifted and sunk back into the frame after a brief delay. He rolled his shoulders and head, the suit mimicking his movements perfectly.

“Helios, all systems functional. Ready to Drop. Let’s Rock n’ Roll!”

A standard soft chuckle escaped Jack as he listen to Thessalia lay down the final plans. Despite all opinions to the contrary, she had chosen her own, much as Jack had expected she would. It wasn't that the other proffered opinions weren't valid suggestions, but a matter of circumstance prevent them from being viable. The suggestions offered by the newcomers were all dependent of a highly organized team, capable of being both autonomous and coordinated at the same time. This was not something that Squad One qualified of just yet. Richard and himself were nearly on that level, and Thessalia seemed to be able to mold herself to fit, but it could hardly be called seamless teamwork. Adding in three complete strangers was disastrous. Thessalia's plan of action was a much simpler 'lets drop everyone together and see if simple instructions could be followed before anything more complex was attempted'. It wasn't the best tactically in terms of position, but it allowed for a unified strength of numbers, if nothing else. Of course, none of that mattered to Jack. That was not his job. Thessalia had already said out what he had intended to do all along, with or without her order: find the queen. Of course, finding the monarch was the easier part. Taking it out was a different story altogether. For that, he would eventually need help. Said help relied on Thessalia's plan working as intended and her ability as leader to come through. She needed to keep everyone in line, or this battle would fall apart in an instant.

Jack usual smile left his face as he turned around and began to file out of the command room without another word to his teammates; a rare occurrence for him. It would make Thessalia proud to know her counseling was taking some effect, however small. Of course, this was a tactical decision, as well as a personal one.It was his overt abrasiveness and frank attitude that had brought the complete breakdown of any semblance of teamwork among Squad One's original team. Miromi's attitude had amplified and infected the others; a state of mind that had been completely Jack's fault. Things needed to be watched it back if this team was to succeed in any way, especially since parallels could be brought up between the new members and the old. It was for this reason that he had suggested at his mental condition to the other, although there was still the factor of amusement in the way it was delivered. Thankfully the newcomers were a lot quicker to catch on and, hopefully, understand than the old. What they thought about it and how they would act was still a complete mystery, however. In either case, Roman wouldn't be happy about it. He was never happy about anything.

Jack's thought were interrupted temporarily as he came to a sudden halt. The drop bay in front of him housed something he didn't quite expect: the Nephesh. Doing a quick double-take from his machine in front of him to his wrist, Jack saw that the usual black face of the A.W.E. selector was already lit up with the Nephesh's specs. Apparently they wanted to go for full realism in this simulation. Pausing for only a moment longer, Jack shrugged before taking a step directly in front of his familiar machine. Raising his hand in front of him, Jack snapped his fingers. A short pause followed, allowing the snap to echo around the room before the proximity bio scanners detected an authorized personnel. Jack smiled as a few soft clicks could be heard, followed by the opening up of his armor. In the back of the machine, the chest, legs and arms opened, making a human-shaped space. Without a word, Jack walked behind his machine, and carefully inserted his legs into the proper places. Once secure, the backs snapped shut as Jack inserted his other limbs into the corresponding slots. Once his hand and feet were secure in their gloves and boots, Jack hoisted his body upward, pressing his chest against the armor and fitting his head into the front of the visor. With a gentle but quick whirr, the body armor fully closed, entirely encasing Jack in his A.W.E.

"WELCOME, JACK ROMAN."

The words flashed in green across the his HUD as the Nephesh's systems sparked to life. When the message cleared, the usual technical specs were projected in its stead s the boot up process took place. It was a short one, and in a matter of seconds, "FIN." flashed across his HUD, before vanishing and completely clearing the visor, save the general diagnostics located around the various edges. Lifting his arms, Jack grinned at the familiar mechanical whirrs that went along with it. Doing his usal quick check of the joint by swiveling his limbs into various positions, Jack was satisfied that everything was in order. There was just one thing left to do. "Passcode: zeta, alpha, theta, alpha, seven, zero, zero. Jack Roman, assigning you to allow Clarke access to a Wolfgang Feuer; a Sasha Ivanova; and a Hu-Shi Zhong," Jack said in a bored tone as he looked to the corner of his HUD, where his energy map was being formatted. "FIN." flashed across his HUD once more as his access message would appear on the screens on the new linked machines. He would appear on their radars now. All that was left to do now wait wait for everyone to finish, and to get in the pods. The mission was about to begin.

At the command from Thessalia, Richard slyly nodded as he saluted, watching Thessalia stride past him towards. "Your call, Sergeant," he said as he turned back towards his own drop pod, following Feurer in and watching him interface with his own A.W.E. "See if you can keep up, Jerry," Richard said, using the racial slur as more of a playful jibe than an actual insult. Across from Wolf, the DEMON was kneeling, as if in supplication to a lord, one arm on the floor and the other across his chest. With a snap of his armoured fingers, the front of the DEMON seemed to dissolve as the nanites broke apart to reveal an empty chest cavity. Ternung around, Richard gripped one of the support struts and hauled himself in, moving his limbs to the appropriate positions. As his back contacted with the gel-lined insides of the machine, multiple spikes fired out and stabbed into the ports in the interface suit, the nanites reforming over Richard's chest. With a low gurgle, fluid pumped into the gel-lined vessels of the pilot's cavity, expanding the systems so that it fitted to Richard's body, before solidifying. Slowly at first, the DEMON rose up, Richard's head seemingly misshapen as his HUD remained informed. Flexing his arms and back, the Englishman let out a grim smile as he ensured he would be at full combat efficiency. As a melee model, maneouvrability was everything to him. +Complete preparations+ he subvocalised into his personal comms,. Hearing his command, his machine completed final checks, loading ammunition batteries into his STINGERS while feeding energy briefly into his RIPPERS. He could feel the nanites rippling accross the surface of his A.W.E as they received a surge of power, and they quickly made their way to his face, slowly covering the Englishman's visage with a bulbous nodule of pure black...until they turned on their holographic systems. With a sudden flash, Richard's face was replacd by the image of a flaming, horned skull which leered at everything and anything in his way. The holographic flames lit up the room as Richard turned around, slapping his chest with each arm to make sure everything was secured. +Perfe-perf-ct+ he said, the voice distortion system coming into play, +let's go hunt -let's go- some Saurids -hunt some-...+

Climbing into the gunmetal grey interior of the drop pod, Richard locked himself into one of the crash harnesses located along the walls, between the five petal-like doors. Pulling the straps over his A.W.E. and tightening it so that it pushed him into the wall, the Englishman looked out into the central spire that dominated the drop pod, a single pillar that . Making sure he could still reach the controls in front of him and read the console above him, Richard watched Wolf climb in and make himself comfortable as well. Reaching out, the Englishman punched a few more keys into the console, linking his pod with those of his squadmates and bringing their statuses onto his console. +Sound off+ he said into the pod comms, having turned his voice distortion off. One by one, the different pods sounded off, and Richard let out a satisfied grunt as he keyed in a few more runes over the console. +Well then, Team Rapid will be heading down first.+ he said as he reached over to one of the buttons along the side of the central spire. The drop pod was a standard design, build to deliver a fireteam of five men into battle, or, in this case, two A.W.E.s in somewhat cramped conditions. Thankfully, this meant that Richard was able to reach the majority of the controls.

Flicking the switch, there was a low drone as the conveyors hidden under the drop pod trundled them towards the launch bays. The Rapid pod was silent as they felt the tiny vibrations of their ride reaching its terminus. A countdown appeared on their HUDs as their pod was fitted into a firing barrel. 3...2...1...With a sudden lurch, the pod was fired from the barrel like a bullet from the gun, and Rapid found itself hurtling rapidly towards their deployment positions. The G-forces would have caused an ordinary man to faint already, but the shielding of the A.W.Es provided protection as they rocketed towards terra firma. The pod shook and shifted as the atmosphere gripped them in its turbulent fist, and if it weren't for the harnesses, Richard would already have been knocked unconscious. The air in the pod started to heat up as atmospheric entry burned up the outside of the pod, the metal doing what it could to conduct the heat away, but nevertheless letting some leak through. Once again, Team Rapid remained silent.

With a sudden clarity, their pod stopped shaking. They had entered past the atmosphere...but then it seemed to open up a new type of problem. With a sudden smash, their pod shook even more violently than before. Grunting in surprise, Richard opened up the external pict-capturers and got a hazy view of the ground. Some sort of projectile was being fired towards them...and in great numbers. Once again, their craft shook as something smacked into their rear. +Theres frakking AA fire!+ Richard shouted as he assessed damage, +rStarboard reverse thruster is out...and gyroscopic stabiliser is in bad condition! Taking over manual control!+ Smashing the autopilot key as if in anger, the Englishman grabbed hold of a pair of handles. The Drop pod was usually just a single straight line down from orbit, but in the event of something like this, a pilot could take the controls to exert some control over their descent, if only a slight increase to horizontal thrust. Yanking backwards as their pod started to list, the thruster fired and Richard managed to right them, but just as he did so, another round smashed into the bottom of the drop pod, shaking the crew compartment, and causing Richard to lose control for a second. Hurtling end over end, the two members of rapid had no more idea of their orientation, but nevertheless, Richard fought for control over their gyrating craft as his face turned red from effort. Managing to stabilise them, Richard looked down into the pict-caster. "SHIT!" he shouted, the word echoing through the compartment as his speaker screamed. They had cleared cloud cover, and were about to hit ground. Literally ripping his harness off with his claws, Richard took a faltering step forward as he fought for balance. With half of his thrusters gone, he would have to start the reverse early if they wanted to stay in the shape of a human. Yet at the same time, he had to fight for control over the ship. Yanking back on the two control rods to reorient themselves, the Englishman reached for the emergency reverse thrust, but he couldn't reach as the G-forces pushed him back. "COME ON!" he shouted as he stretched. Just then, there was a flash of movement, and the lever was ripped down, and out of its socket...but it did the trick. Like a banshee released from her prison, the thrusters screamed out. Now falling below the depression angle of the AA fire, the giant globs of bioacid stopped their assault and the drop pod fell to the ground like a heavenly arrow. "Brace for impact!" Richard shouted as he yanked back on the controls.

With a thundrous crash, the drop pod slammed into the earth, creating a small impact crater. With little time to spare, saurids already started to swarm around the foreign object, trying to pry it open with their talons. Without warning, the five metal doors opened like some sort of absurd metal flower, quickly followed by five sharp bangs as bolts of shrapnel fired outwards, shredding every creature within a ten meter radius. From out of the smoke stepped the form of DEMON, hunched over, but bloodthirsty. +Team Rapid down...twenty meters off course...orders?+ he asked as he breathed heavily. The Saurids, taking notice of this new enemy, chittered and swarmed towards Richard. With a feral scream of his own that would have cowed any sentient creature, Richard unsheathed his claws and prepared to meet them in the sinews of melee combat.

Following the order to prepare for Orbital Drop, little time was lost - with a brisk pace, the five squad members in the briefing room headed toward the Drop Bay; Thessalia casting one last glance at the holo-map before flicking the projector back off. The way was a short one, ursurprisingly - little point in wasting space in a Drop Ship, after all; meaning that just a few moments later, the five joined up with the sixth member, Richard, who was finishing the launch preparations for the Squad's drop pods. Hearing their approach, he announced the installation of smoke launchers in Core's and Overwatch's pods as well as skyshard launchers in Rapid's - a potentially useful addition, garnering a confirming nod from Thessalia. A quick glance around confirmed that all of them were, to whichever degree, already familiar with the procedure; none of the others wasting any time to board their A.W.E.'s. Seeing this, Thessalia in turn faced her own - MKS-19C Hagelsturm.

The white A.W.E. stood quite tall; its exterior's ruggedness only hinting at the advanced shielding system that was the heart of the Wirbelwind unit. Now, however, Hagelsturm was kneeling, allowing its pilot easy access to its interior; a swift motion that had been executed too many times to count already. Half pulling, half swinging herself up, Thessalia quickly got herself into Hagelsturm's cockpit; the A.W.E. recognising the presence of an Interface Suit within and performing a quick scan before the systems started up in earnest. The frontal armour began moving; sealing the cockpit as the HUD came online. Immediately, dozens of lines began pouring over it; each informing a trained eye about the status of the various systems as they powered up and came online. Most of them passed too fast to be of any use; merely a short OK denoting the completion of a set of subsystems remaining thereafter - until, just a few seconds after the process had begun, the HUD faded; only to reappear a moment later, this time in fully operational mode. Numerous statistics were displayed - subsystem condition, Core charge, shield power, weapon status and ammunition as well as environmental data and all identified nearby units. Of those, there were five.

One by one, every member stated their readiness in their way - from the more matter-of-factly Sasha over Wolfgang's enthusiasm to Jack's silent appearance on the squad's radar systems. "Hagelsturm to Squad One, all units operational," she announced over the comms as Hagelsturm began to stand up from its kneeling position; the white A.W.E. quickly making its presence known as it stood taller than the lighter units in the squad. Scanning the Drop Bay, Thessalia could only confirm what Hagelsturm already had registered - all of the others were equally prepared and ready to go; Richard's unnervingly distorted voice echoing as he suggested they get on their way to hunt some saurids. A simple nod in agreement sufficed for Thessalia before turning toward the drop pod that was to be Core's ride to the surface - after all, everyone knew what was to do. Climbing into the drop pod, careful not to damage either it or Hagelsturm in doing so, Thessalia too attached the crash webbing to her A.W.E. as Hu-Shi did the same; the others no doubt too in their respective pods.

Having finished the securing process, Thessalia turned her attention to the console upon the central support beam of the drop pod; confirming that both the coordinates entered were correct and that the other two pods were linked up. No sooner was this done, Richard's voice came over the comms, asking for a sound off. Glancing up at Hu-Shi, or rather, Chrome Ex-Road, she gave a simple nod before responding: "Core Team, ready for Drop." With each pod noting their readiness, Richard spoke up again - and stating that they'd be going in first. "Copy. Core and Overwatch will drop after you, ten second intervals," she responded; a few inputs to the console getting the system ready for a drop with just a single further press of a button. Eyes hovering over the console's status screen of the drop pods, Thessalia would closely follow Rapid's descent closely - even as the symbol flashed; noting damage of some sort. A warning appearned, stating that the drop pod was veering off course - only for the warning to change into notification that it was correcting course. Counting down the ten seconds since Rapid's launch, Thesslia narrowed her eyes when the drop pod was hit once again - this time evidently harder as the pod's orientation was blow out of the water. Even so, though, she remained silent - there was nothing they could do up here to help; the two of Rapid having to manually get things back in order - even as she in turn initiated Core team's launch; the ten seconds having passed.

Core's pod was in turn loaded into the launching tube; the final preparations being made - as Rapid's descent suddenly slowed; the two having managed to reorient their pod and fire the reverse-thrusters in time for a hard, but still safe enough landing. There was little time for relief, however - as just a moment later, Core team's pod was launched. Withing a fraction of a second, the drop pod was violently propelled planteside; the vessel rapidly heating up and starting to leave an evermore glowing trail behind it as it streaked through the atmosphere. It was, much to be expected, a bumpy ride - but the drop pod held up; the console noting the rapidly declining distance between them and the ground - before the worst of the shaking stopped. The drop pod noted various details outside changing; most of them about the atmospheric constellation - until the drop pod gave a violent lurch. Immediately, a warning flashed - something had hit them; taking a part of the heat shield with it. The temperature began to noticeably turn itself up - with still a long way remaining until the drop pod reached ground.

"Heat shield down to half, systems heating up," Thessalia reported, her voice retaining its calm despite the situation; her eyes glancing over the various displays of the consoles that showed the drop pod's systems - judging by those, they should be able to make plantefall before the pod disintegrated; their A.W.E.'s shields taking heat for them. Just then, the drop pod shook once again - as they were hit once more; the Saurid's volleys of bio-acid striking home - but, as a quick scan showed, only barely having grazed the side of the pod; slightly knocking them off course but doing minimal damage. Eyes practically glued to the console - even as Hagelsturm noted the constantly increasing ambient temperature - Thessalia followed the steadily decreasing altitude meter - until the number thereon suddenly started decreasing at a markedly slower rate; though not due to the reverse thrusters. Scanning the console, the problem quickly became clear: The previous hit had done little damage per se - but some acid had managed to burn through and mess with the main thruster; its disabling slowing their descent noticeably - and making Core team a far easier target.

Fortunately for them, however, the damage came too late - as the drop pod had already passed far enough to be out of harm's way for what the Saurids could throw up into the air. Thus, though slower than anticipated, Core team managed to complete the Orbital Drop - even if the interior was heating up to humanly unbearable levels; the exterior of the pod glowing brightly and, in some places, even burning or having started to disintegrate as the reverse thrusters finally fired; the pod's downward momentum violently stalling and reaching far safer speeds before, with a resounding boom and a final shake, Core team made plantesfall. Some of the systems had taken damage throughout the procedure; making a precise determination of their landing coordinates impossible - and thus prompting Thessalia to utilise the smoke launchers that had been installed. "Smoke is on. Let's get out and secure a perimeter," she announced - as the drop pod's doors crashed down; revealing the outside world as a thick cloud of smoke. Simultaneously freed from the crash webbing, Hagelsturm immediately pushed outward; its MStG-37 already unfolded from its forearms and ready to face any opposition; even as Richard's voice came through belatedly, announcing Team Rapid's equally successful drop.

As it turned out, Core team had made a perfect landing - just behind friendly lines, albeit a little hotter than intended, as Hagelsturm's radar system picked up the surroundings; these matching the still-fortified side of the river and its central bridge. "This is Core team, landed on point. Moving to engage forces across central bridge. Rapid team, move to rendezvous on the other side. Engage at will," she announced - both in response to Richard's call for orders, as well as to set the immediate course. "Overwatch team, move into positions and get an eye on the situation. Free to engage," she continued for the third and final team of Squad One - before switching the comms to team- rather than squad-wide. "Zhong, we're moving out. We're heading over the bridge and setting up a beachhead - we're here to draw attention," Thessalia cleared up, even as she turned toward the bridge; ignoring the part wondrous, part fearful faces of the Defense Force's soldiers around them as she set her comms back to squad-wide, Hagelsturm beginning to head straight toward the enemy-held side of the bridge where the fighting was most intense.

"Squad One: Move out!"

Sasha whistled.

It wasn't really a whistle, of course--that would be annoying as shit over the comms and plenty loud within the machine itself. Really it was just kind of breathing in rhythm through her lips, but it had the same effect. In her head, resin'd bows ran themselves across metal cables, mallets beat on percussive strings and wind worked its was through odd shapes. The song always changed, it wasn't important, but the music seemed to help her keep pace with herself and, more importantly, think about something other than hurtling towards the earth in a tin can through gouts of bioacid. How much danger she was in, even under these circumstances, was questionable--the Ulanova had the heaviest shields and armor around, a sturdier than any production battle tank, but the sensation of immobility and inevitability was never a pleasant one for her. As the first group dropped and relayed the AA fire, she breathed the opening bars of her latest fixation--Apotheosis Act 7, D-Minor. As the second group dropped and made ground on schedule, she was working her way through the introduction. And as she was loaded up into the drop bay, eyes closed, the was starting the crescendo as the world gave way around her--

And off they went.

The display on the Ulanova was an impressive thing, coded very carefully to keep it sane and intelligible for an operator. She would have to see if the German boy could get he in touch with his company--it would be excellent from an ergonomic standpoint to integrate the sensory information directly into the mind, though to be fair it would be an awful lot to manage. Still, the system had already linked to a far greater depth with her teammates AWES's than all but the most advanced diagnostic systems allowed. She could see through their mission cameras, track the data from their sensors and integrate it with her own view of the battlefield as it formed. Slight motions of her eyes, lingering attention brought up increased analysis on specific aspects of the situation, including in this case the AA fire. Bioorganic acid, it would do messy things to metal but she doubted its efficacy on shields. Getting through it in tact wouldn't be the problem, but if they got too far off of course...

"Altering course. I've got a better route" She managed, extending a smaller fine-manipulator grasp from the palm of the Ulanova's massive grip to take the controls. As they broke the atmosphere she redoubled her efforts, humming her way into the refrain as she tweaked and altered course for the areas of lowest projected resistance, syncing ground reports with probably coverage spreads based on maximum lethal coverage areas--

A tag, but a small one, a slight ricochet off one of the port panels, but she paid it no mind but for a small correction made with a flick of her fingers. The roar around her, the shaking of the metal, any snarky comments made by her squad-mate... all fell away in focus as she worked them through the soft spots in the cloud of cover and adjusted more aggressively to reset them on course once they were past the bulk of the fire. If her breathing was hard, if the confinement and the heat was beginning to make a bit of sweat bead at her temples, if the ground was racing up to them in ten, nine--reverse thrusters, coming in too hot--eight, seven, six--slowing down, approaching acceptable speeds--four, three, two...

The impact was jarring, to say the least, but the machine took the brunt of it. It's shock padding cushioned the impact, the sheer weight of it and the thickness of its armor preventing any significant damage from occurring. That being said, as the metal props jammed the doors open with enough force to crush the roadwork beneath, she found that the bio-acid had done a bit more damage than she'd thought. "No smoke, there's was some damage done to the chemical chambers." Worse, they'd landed just ahead of the allied fortifications on the central bridge--it was a miracle it hadn't cracked under the impact. Sloppy, she reprimanded herself as she pushed forward immediately, taking the moment to regain momentum. First things first--while she was intensely armored, her squad-mate was not. Best, then, for her to draw their fire and their attention to let the stealth unit slip away unscathed. And with an engage at will order like that...

"Get going, Overwatch 2. Happy hunting." She offered with a smile as she brought the Valentin to bear, the beast of a gun settling into the AWE's massive hands and opening fire even as caustic acid spattered harmlessly on the hex-pattern pulse shield of the Ulanova.

"Engaging."

As it spun to to life, she would have sworn it kept time for her.

The drop down to the surface was hectic, at best. At worst, it was a downright terrifying first experience. The initial excitement lasted through the loading of the pod, past the humming of conveyer belts and the massive WHUNK as the pod fired down towards the service. Wolf felt his blood boiling with anticipation as they picked up speed; then, in a single second, all of the excitement was replaced by fear, as the first barrage of acid blasts hit the shell of the pod.

Wolf was suddenly aware of the heat in the pod around him. It was not from inside, this time, but it was from the outside, leaking through after the long burn through the upper atmosphere. The violent jolt had just as easily jolted Wolf to the grim pseudo-reality around him – in his mind, he knew it was only a simulation, yet the danger was all too real. It was something he had never quite fully experienced before. There was little he could do to help Richard – the Englishman had access to almost all of the controls, and was handling them rather adeptly. Wolf kept his face grim, closing his eyes in preparation for the impact. He steeled himself, ignoring Richard’s cursing and shouting, until…

WHOOM! The pod slammed into the ground, sending earth and stone in all directions. The doors blasted open, followed closely by blasts of shrapnel. In seconds, there was a 20-meter-wide space clear of hostiles – and plenty of room to go crazy. Wolf stepped out of the pod, and as terrifying as the DEMON was, the Helios had its own presence on the battlefield. The remnants of GHOST engineering became apparent as heat vents all across the gold-and red carapace opened, expelling jets of flame. For a moment, the Helios was wreathed in astral fire, appearing more of living flame than metal.

Wolf punched the air in front of him, ejecting an empty shell from his machine gun, before dropping into his ready stance. The other two pods had already dropped, and now the saurids were closing in. “Team Rapid, both members accounted for. Engaging!” Even before he finished, the Helios was leaping into the air, the thrusters all along the frame roaring to life as they propelled him into the air. He twisted, firing a triple-set of missiles from his shoulder, clearing his landing zone, before landing in a shower of heat and fire. It was a fraction of a second; he fired a pair of shotgun shells into the creatures and laid down a volley of machine-gun fire, all the while moving with the slashing DEMON. He was dimly aware of the other A.W.E.’s efforts to combat the saurids, but they were only a direction to move. He thought he could faintly hear humming in the background, but it was only a distraction.

He was in the raw heat of combat now.

Had she cause to worry when the Saurids had first began their assault on the drop pods? Perhaps she would have, but Hu-Shi, for the first mission with her team, decided to trust in the piloting skills of the leader of the team, who doubtlessly had much more experience in these landings than she did. While the Chinese pilot did know the basics of manoeuvring a drop pod, she never delved deeply into it, partly due to not having many chances to, and partly because it didn't play that big a part in her marks. Nevertheless, she busied herself with scanning over the status of both Core's drop pod, as well as those of Rapid and Overwatch, making sure that there wasn't something missed by the eyes of her teammates. The effectiveness of the acidic assault was short-lived though, and even though there were warning displays on her HUD, showing temperatures outside had gone beyond that in which a human could survive in. It was nice and cool in the AWE though. After all, she was sitting on a freezer full of ice cream.

With a shudder and a boom that were both respectively dampened by the shock absorbers and sound cancellers built into the Chrome Ex-Road, Hu-Shi nodded at Thessalia's announcement as her AWE's mechanical fingers found their grip on the cleaver-like Dragonslayers. Following the tunnel in the smoke that Hagelstrum left in its wake, the AWE swivelled 180 degrees from side to side, insuring that its ball joints were undamaged from the descent, before Hu-Shi leaned forwards. With a mighty rumble, the bright red Chrome Ex-Road emerged from the smoke, with the same majesty as a tank during the first World War, centuries past. She smiled and saluted the foot soldiers nearby, before revving up the core of the AWE once more, cruising towards the bridge at a nice, steady pace of 40km/h.

“Core 1, I'll be making contact with hostiles in ten seconds. Please cover me,” Hu-Shi said, cheerily. It was good to keep a positive tone, after all, especially in such a stressful, violent situation.

Ten seconds later, Chrome Ex-Road smashed into the first Saurid, a few tons of metal reducing the Tearer into a flattened blob of flesh as the tank treads rolled over it. Humming a cheery marching tune, the Chinese girl drew out the Dragonslayers, and finally began to get to the meat of the issue. Undeterred by the Saurids that approached, the metal juggernaut spun and swung, accelerating now to a speedy 65km/h as it smashed through enemy ranks, the barrier coating keeping alien matter off the shiny paint coat of the AWE.

It was nice, really, fighting in an urban environment against enemies that didn't even have hidden railgun turrets to turn you into swiss cheese.

Spinning, not stirred, with artillery on her side, Hu-Shi set her swords to her sides as she turned the Chrome Ex-Road into a spinning top.