Silverwind listened to the pilots check in one-by-one, turning the [i]Harlock[/i] to watch as their GEARs came to life and moved out of their holding stalls and formed up. Kensington chimed in as well, and he clicked his mike in response.
"Okay, team. Good job. Ken, take off and set up a holding pattern while we deploy. Everyone else, here's the skinny - Warlock, take Bell, Stone and Kelsea as your scouting team. Maxwell, position yourself so you're able to relay comms between the recon team and the main unit, as well as providing tactical fire support if necessary, and targeting for Kradis or any of the rest of us for long-range support to cover the recon units' retreat. Everyone who ain't in the recon unit is wi' me. Our job will be to move up behind the recon team and spread out to provide flanking cover at a medium distance, and to secure the rear area of the battlefield, and prevent them from bein' outmanoeuvred. First things first, we gotta move away from the ship. On the double, move out. Positions' updated on yer L/OS HUD"
Blade spun on his foot-wheels, and thumped down the ramp at the head of the bay, moving into the outside with a cloud of dust at his heel. The sun was low in the sky as the afternoon slid into evening. The grassy plains and gently rolling terrain was dream-like with its' sea of waving stalks and bushes, broken by strands of spread-out plains trees, and the occasional rocky outcrop. 
The assembly point for the mission was around twenty miles from the [i]Claw[/i], at the mouth of a valley that began as a shallow, ancient riverbed on the plains, widening out and dropping steeply as it approached the area of rocky bluffs and low hills that the simulated 'base' resided in.