"Roger, Colonel," was Myrina's response, who was shifting herself to anticipate the movement of the incoming unit. With the main force reeling it in, she and the harder hitters in the recon group could support them from another angle. "We'll sit tight here and keep an eye on them 'till you engage."

Myrina switched her comm to a private channel with Oliver. Blade had chastised him before she could open her mouth, and she felt as if she needed to say something herself as team leader.
"Pull another stunt like that and I will skin your hide and turn you into a rug," she said in a harsh whisper. "I will not embarrass myself as a member of this unit due to the actions of an idiot within my team." With that, she closed the channel and let out a sigh. She hoped this wouldn't reflect on her position of leadership, at least for the time being.

"Alright, Recon, you heard the Colonel. I need you to keep an eye out for additional reinforcements while the Colonel's team engages the GEARs headed this way. Kelsea, you and I are going to lend some supporting fire to the main group once they hit contact. The rest of you, keep your eyes and ears peeled." Adrian and Myrna's GEARs lacked the specialized reconnaissance equipment of the others, so they'd be suited to providing the team's muscle when the rounds started flying.

"Roger, Colonel," was Myrina's response, who was shifting herself to anticipate the movement of the incoming unit. With the main force reeling it in, she and the harder hitters in the recon group could support them from another angle. "We'll sit tight here and keep an eye on them 'till you engage."

Myrina switched her comm to a private channel with Oliver. Blade had chastised him before she could open her mouth, and she felt as if she needed to say something herself as team leader.
"Pull another stunt like that and I will skin your hide and turn you into a rug," she said in a harsh whisper. "I will not embarrass myself as a member of this unit due to the actions of an idiot within my team." With that, she closed the channel and let out a sigh. She hoped this wouldn't reflect on her position of leadership, at least for the time being.

"Alright, Recon, you heard the Colonel. I need you to keep an eye out for additional reinforcements while the Colonel's team engages the GEARs headed this way. Kelsea, you and I are going to lend some supporting fire to the main group once they hit contact. The rest of you, keep your eyes and ears peeled." Adrian and Myrna's GEARs lacked the specialized reconnaissance equipment of the others, so they'd be suited to providing the team's muscle when the rounds started flying.

"Roger, Colonel," was Myrina's response, who was shifting herself to anticipate the movement of the incoming unit. With the main force reeling it in, she and the harder hitters in the recon group could support them from another angle. "We'll sit tight here and keep an eye on them 'till you engage."

Myrina switched her comm to a private channel with Oliver. Blade had chastised him before she could open her mouth, and she felt as if she needed to say something herself as team leader.
"Pull another stunt like that and I will skin your hide and turn you into a rug," she said in a harsh whisper. "I will not embarrass myself as a member of this unit due to the actions of an idiot within my team." With that, she closed the channel and let out a sigh. She hoped this wouldn't reflect on her position of leadership, at least for the time being.

"Alright, Recon, you heard the Colonel. I need you to keep an eye out for additional reinforcements while the Colonel's team engages the GEARs headed this way. Kelsea, you and I are going to lend some supporting fire to the main group once they hit contact. The rest of you, keep your eyes and ears peeled." Adrian and Myrna's GEARs lacked the specialized reconnaissance equipment of the others, so they'd be suited to providing the team's muscle when the rounds started flying.

"Enemy spotted, 3 GEARs, roughly 8 kilometers to the south-west of my position. Shall we engage them?"

Combined with the hostiles that Maxwell had spotted and Nawlin was waiting in position for, this showed that their simulated enemy was waiting. The point of the exercise was to test the groups capabilities and training, and so far - aside from the minor hiccup with Oliver's 'wandering eyes', which wasn't really any worse than some of the other things he'd heard about - they'd done pretty well. No one had given any back-talk or done anything stupid.
"We've got hostiles here, too. Myrina; you're in command of that element, it's your call. Judging by the picture, I'd say you can take 'em if you've got the clear element of surprise. Just make sure they don't get the chance to get the word out. We need to maximise our chances ta survive, here. Even if this is only a training mission". He grinned slightly. "Still, that means we got all th' more chance to show what we can do, an' why a bunch of hillbilly-armoured cans ain't a match fer mil-spec GEARs".

The GEARs and small knot of vehicles under Mike and Ken's surveillance spread out, taking better spacing and distance. Despite being clearly improvised weaponry for the most part - as was appropriate, for representing bandit and pirate GEARs and equipment, the point of the exercise - the unit had some degree of formal training, and knew how to move. The long-range weapons covered the angles, and formed a good box of security around the moving vehicles. The gunners atop the MRAP-style trucks scanned the terrain at regular intervals, checking for potential threats. As the unfenced but paved road turned away toward the horizon, the convoy kept coming straight - leading them almost directly toward the mouth of the canyon, the distance closing down.

Shona frowned, heartrate picking up a bit, as her sensors chimed with contacts. Nothing solid, but there was something out there. Oliver's intercepted transmissions popped up on her combined data-feed, and she glanced at them, silently concurring with the tiger's analysis.

And then there they were. Her first view of the enemy. Three decidedly makeshift-looking GEARs. Blade reported the main body had contacts too - that was a little disconcerting. Had the enemy managed to slip through the recon formation? Her map automatically updated with the positions of the two elements of Riders and the two enemy units. No, they were coming from an area off to the side of their sweep. Just bad luck.

She tapped one finger against her joystick, thinking. "Between Stone and me, only I'm configured for long-range." She said over the comms. "With the drone feed I should be able to set up a decent firing solution if we can get close enough, but I'm not sure if I can take out three GEARs that fast." She didn't say it, but she probably wouldn't engage yet if she had a choice. Better to wait and be in a position to help the main element if needed, and have the rest of recon at their backs for their contacts. Myrina had command, though, and more experience than her.

The bat continued to scan her eyes over her feeds, waiting for the call.

Clearly, the enemy had been sighted, as the various recon elements of the squad broke away at various angles, sending back confirmation of hostile forces in the area. This was later confirmed by numerous pings from the recon's LAS-DES sensors, which lit up Kradis' Tactical Map Overlay with two groups of red dots, one much closer than the other.. So, they are here. Finally. With a flick of a switch, Gammorah was changed to Manual Transverse mode, and took large steps towards the friendly squad, trudging along with limited mobility.

He took up a position a little farther to the right of the group, placing the Colonel's group in between him and the enemy force, and Gammorah maintained this position as they continued to move. "Colonel Blade, sir. Kradis here. Where do you need us?" Kradis was itching to get into the fight, but was not about to jeopardize the mission for it. Patience and planning were key to successful long range strikes, and the main recon force was too far away for fire support. The helo-pilot, however, had encountered hostiles much closer, well within range of the Javelins. When the fight broke out, and if cleared to, Kradis was ready to cover his retreat.

Oliver heard his radio turning on as Myria opened up a private channel to scold the tiger some more. His little stunt of using his recon drone to check out a female's ass didn't fell too good with the more serious members of his team. It seemed like they don't appreciate a well formed female butt at times like these. The only things that Oliver was surprised about was the ferocity of Myria's comments and the remark about embarrassing herself. Skinned alive and being turned into a rug was a new one. None of the instructors during basic training used such words in their efforts to turn the tiger into well disciplined and professional soldier. They usually went directly to the "do 100 pushups". Not that it helped much. Oliver opened up a private channel to the recon team's leader "Don't worry about it. Even with an idiot on your team you're doing fine. Just see it as an opportunity. If you can make me follow, no one can deny that your leadership skills are top notch" Responded Oliver joyful towards his superior. It might come over as a small joke to lighten the mood but there was some truth in the tiger's words. Most of his commanding officers during training where driven mad by him, including instructors as Oliver would mess around on a regular basis. It gave the young tiger a reputation of being undisciplined, unprofessional and generally hard to work with.

Just when the tiger closed the channel with Myria he heard the colonel's voice coming over the radio. He pretty much gave Myria the order to decide what to do with the GEARS that are guarding the bridge. Oliver was pretty sure she would give the order to engage. Myria seemed to be the kind of girl that wanted to prove herself, judging from her earlier response to Oliver's little stunt. Also Shona's voice came in. She seemed to hint to her and Oliver engaging the three makeshift GEARS near the bridge. Oliver quickly judged the situation. The opposition was equipped with makeshift GEARS. None the less they would pack some punch with their GEAR assault rifles and rockets. More than enough firepower to turn a lightly armored GEAR like his into a pile of junk. Oliver was well aware of the fact that his GEAR was not equipped for heavy combat as he was armed with just a standard GEAR assault rifle and two 5.56mm machineguns. If he was to engage the enemy, he would have to put his GEAR into range of the enemies weapons. The tiger opened up the comlink to the recon team. "Looks like it's time for a little action. Shona, if you want we can move into fireing position. I can cover you and engage any GEAR that comes to close while jamming their communications. That way you just take em out from a distance while I kick back and relax. Sounds like a perfect balance of the workload to me. And the best of all, no enemy re-enforcements. What do you think of it Myria?"

From what she had seen so far, Raisa had to admit she wasn't fond of LDF military doctrine and tactics. Sending the recon unit into battle, while keeping the assault-slash-multirole machines in the rear? If you spoke of it to an Iyuli commander, he would burst into laughter then give you pitiful look. Then again, Iyuli didn't have any dedicated recon or electronic warfare GEAR's to begin with, instead relying on traditional wheeled units, dedicated long-range landcruisers or normal multirole GEARS modified to carry the equipment required instead of shoulder-mounted weaponry and the like.

With her five years of experience, despite it mostly being peacetime training missions, parades and patrols and her low rank due to not having any special experience in true combat (promotions in Iyuli relying on true combat experience rather than know-how and training results, for whatever reason), Raisa considered herself at least somewhat capable of deeming what was a good idea or not. This, for example, had a strange smell of unneeded challenge to it (as much as unneeded challenge has a smell). If it were her, after sighting and confirming the enemy, she would immediately withdraw the recon unit to a range where their equipment was still effective while being out of the enemy's effective range. Once withdrawn, she would order the assault-team to split into two groups and surround the enemy before attacking or have the assault-team move into an ambush position and attack. Either way, the enemy would be caught off-guard, the recon team, with their usually weaker armor and weaponry, would be out of danger and the assault-team, with much more powerful weaponry and armor would have an easy time erasing the enemy.

At this point, she would once again move the recon team forward and bring the assault team into the rear. Then, once the recon team spotted another enemy, she would repeat the process. Rinse and repeat with modifications as needed until the mission objective was completed. Through her five years, these strategies had never once failed her. Rather than explain her concerns however, she decided she would keep it until after the mission and wait and see if the current strategy would bring them anymore success than one of her own would bring. For the moment, she instead decided to give a calm and polite advice over the comms. "If it were me, Private P. Tom, I would wait until the GEARS better suited for combat to arrive before attempting anything. I have a slight idea about the capabilities of your GEARS and I have my doubts whether you can fight three enemies, even with the element of surprise on your side. Then again, I do enjoy surprises." Realizing her remark might have been interpreted as a snide jab, she smiled to nothing in particular and gave a verbal pat on the back. "Good luck."

With this, she returned to her own duties. "Colonel. Requesting orders?"

With another dance of fingers across the translucent floating icons of the C3i system, Blade drew the strings of his plan together. With the sensor fusion abilities of the system, he'd kept a clear eye on the ranges of the targets and the positioning of his people, and the ranges of their weapon systems.

"Colonel Blade, sir. Kradis here. Where do you need us?"

"Prepare to fire and maneuver. We'll hit the hostile formation hard, and then reposition to support the recon team as they advance. Maxwell, designate targets for Kradis for a Javelin strike. Rest of my team, stand to; we'll advance as Kradis fires, and intercept the bandits moments after the missiles hit. Nawlin, open fire just before they hit - get them nice an' confused for our attack".

"Colonel. Requesting orders?"

"Form up on me. I'll open up with my mortar on the move. Give suppressive fire as we advance. Nawlin, use the suppressive to change position and fire again. We wanna hit them as much and as hard as possible".
"Maxwell, change position - head over to the hostiles sighted by the recon time and give 'em fire support. Free 'em up to press on and get the recon data on the enemy base position!"
Rising from its' crouched position, the Harlock bounded into motion, legs churning powerfully as the GEAR advanced across the broken, empty terrain. Moving toward the enemy formation, he used hand signals to the rest of the group along with him to spread out into a line, and approach the small convoy laterally, maximising the number of vehicles open to their firepower. On cue, as the counter clicked down to the Javelin impact, he opened up with a volley of mortar shells. Two HE and two AP, targeted precisely in an airburst around the convoy - or, they would have been, if it hadn't been a simulation anyway. Instead, the sophisticated simulation plotted the trajectories and explosive effects, and knocked out the corresponding systems on the vehicles through electronic lockouts.
"Fire, fire, fire!" he urged the rest of the team. "Press 'em and don't let up!"
Stuttering, half-hearted fire returned from the convoy, straggling and in disarray.
At the position of the second group of hostiles closer to the recon team. the three ramshackle modified GEARs paused, and then began to head for the position of the ambush staged by the assault team, still with no acknowledgement they'd seen any trace of the recon unit.

Kensington was peering out at the horizon during.the idle time he had, multitasking both listening to the radio and daydreaming the aftermath of this training session. Hearing his name again the pilot sat up in his seat and adjusted his grip on the controls of his vehicle, pushing his aircraft forward as he gave a response. "Understood I am on the move." The airman replied, switching channels to ensure his next message reached the Recon team.

"Recon team you have access to CAS and Med Evac. I am currently on the move to your location and will be available for tasking upon arrival. Lets make 'em hill boys learn t'day, yeh?" The senior airman reported, smiling to himself after his final statement. Within the minute he was hovering nearby but far enough to either back off or engage the enemy, depending on what the recon team has in mind.

"Don't worry about it. Even with an idiot on your team you're doing fine. Just see it as an opportunity. If you can make me follow, no one can deny that your leadership skills are top notch!"
Myrina rolled her eyes and double-checked her radar. The unit of GEARs opposite the main team was coming daringly close. An orchestra of gunfire thumped in Myrina's ears, who looked to the main group on her monitor. She could see the triangles representing Blade's team strewn out, positioning themselves into optimal firing positions. Over the low hill that separated them, she saw the muzzle flare beam across the dirt. Movement on the radar grabbed her attention; drawn to the other three GEARs closest the recons' position. They had left the bridge and were more than likely chugging along to help their comrades, who were pinned by Blade's ambush. The GEARs were rolling at high-combat speed, concentrated on regrouping with their fellows as quickly as possible. Fortunately, for Myrina, that put them directly in the recon squad's line of sight.

"Recon, eyes on that unit," she called over her comms, marking the trio on their HUDs. They were moving along the opposite side of the riverbed, where the ground was at a lower elevation. "On my go, I want them taken out before they pass our position."

Myrina bit her lip, the triangles zipping in closer on the HUD radar. Just a little more and they'd be in optimal range. "Oliver, can you jam their electronics? Let's make this a clean sweep."

Lets make 'em hill boys learn t'day, yeh?" Kensington's voice cheered.
"Kensington, Recon's going to hit the three GEARs enroute to the main force's position. I'd like you to assist us when I give the signal, if you'd be so kind."

The sound of gunfire in the distance was registering on Oliver's sensors. Apparently the assault team had started engaging enemy forces and the exercise about to get interesting as the GEARS that the recon team was observing just started to move into the direction of colonel Blade's team. It was obvious that the 3 makeshift GEARS where coming to the aid of their pressured comrades. Now the tiger only had to wait for his team leader's orders to engage the enemy. Luckily Myria did not waste any time with informing her squad about the engagements plans as her voice came up on the radio. "Oliver, can you jam their electronics? Let's make this a clean sweep."

Oliver smiled as he heard her ask the question. It was not something she'd had to ask in a way doubting it was even possible. He had already done the analysis of the radio frequencies used by the enemy units and made sure that both voice communication and datalinks would be disrupted with a press on the button. Oliver laughed "Ofcourse I can jam their electronics. Radio's, data links and some of the used radar frequencies too. But their radars are probably frequency agile so once they notice their radar is distorted they can switch to a different frequency. So we better use that last option once we start shooting. It will make the confusion on their side greater" He paused for a bit as he realised that he was talking a lot of technical stuff again. He might be an extravert, woman chasing tiger but deep down Oliver was also a bit of a nerd.

With a few presses on the controls for the electronic warfare / sigint modules of his GEAR Oliver started to jam the frequencies the emeny was using for their communications and data sharing. Any attempt by the enemy to use their radio's for voice communications would result in an absolute silence. Any monitors that were previously showing positions and stuff now only showed a no data link message. "This is Oliver for the recon team. Enemies communications are being jammed since right now. We better go and kick their asses" Said the tiger as execitement started to take over. Oliver was clearly looking forward to the confrontation as he unlocked the savety from his weaponsystem. He might not be the best shot but he still enjoyed firering weapens as it gave the tiger a kick.

When Adrian noticed the approach of his team’s target, he broke off to set up nearby. At its destination, the L-68 knelt down, its dull sheen resembling a smooth rock as the crest of a small hill hid its lower half. The large rifle it held in both hands slowly tracked ahead of the lead opposing GEAR. “They’re all in single file,” Adrian said to himself. “At that speed, wonder what happens when the lead man trips?” He adjusted his aim downward, pointed directly at the enemy GEAR’s tracked foot. “Warlock, I have a shot,” Adrian said.

" "Prepare to fire and maneuver. We'll hit the hostile formation hard, and then reposition to support the recon team as they advance. Maxwell, designate targets for Kradis for a Javelin strike. Rest of my team, stand to; we'll advance as Kradis fires, and intercept the bandits moments after the missiles hit. Nawlin, open fire just before they hit - get them nice an' confused for our attack."

"aye sir, will engage with impact, then relocate to new fire position." he acknowledged, sighting into the front walker, taking the gears owner as the CO of the group. "Eyes on target, firing." Prowler rocked with the rifles jolts as he sent a short barrage down range. watching the small cluster lines simulating the rounds ark towards the enemy before he rolled out of his cover and darted through the trees, faux explosion noises indicating the javelins hit before his shots.

"Relocating to continue to disorient target" mike grunted as prowler dodged a tree launching him into the pod wall. finding a small depression ringed by trees, mike urged prowler to hug dirt once more. when he finally had prowler in firing position again, not only had the shots missed, but the group was speeding towards the main group. mike cursed and sighted in on the last gear in the line. "eyes on target, engaging hostiles" he said, leading about a meter ahead of the target and calmly squeezing of a trio of shots, watching the rays glide to the wheeling gear. watching intently, he waited for a moment until the lines connected with the gear, with elegantly face planted while its teammates obliviously pushed forward.

"one gear down, continuing to net target" he called, aligning the rifle to the net gear.

"Prepare to fire and maneuver. We'll hit the hostile formation hard, and then reposition to support the recon team as they advance."

"Understood sir, getting into position." With that Kradis moved away from the group, to a small opening not too far away. Gammorah trudged into a firing position, and armed it's weapons, leg stabilizers flinging out and hitting the hard earth with a thud. The GEAR crouched, to help reduce recoil, and it's Javelin launcher calibrated, using the atmospheric data collected before hand. and readied it's fire. "Kradis, in position." Licking his lips in anticipation, Kradis waited, finger hovering over the fire button.

Almost on cue, gunfire erupted around him, and the order to fire was given. "Launching Javelin fire for effect. Incoming on hostiles at Delta 3-4" With that, a target was painted by Kensington, and the missiles launched, the sheer force throwing up dust clouds around Gammorah, and the missile screeched high into the air. Hovering high up in the air for a second at the peak of it's trajectory, it spiraled slightly and accelerated down, striking one of the trucks with sheer velocity, and wrecking it completely. Kradis loosed another missile, and another, as Kensington lit up more targets. A second missile missed completely, as the GEAR's Jamming system proved to be effective, and it's chaff caused the Javelin to crash harmlessly into a cliff face.

The third missile, however, proved to be too much for the enemy's countermeasure systems, and struck closer to home, exploding on the ground less than three metres away. Though causing serious damage, it wasn't nearly enough to completely eliminate it, but forced the enemy to slow their advance, and go on the defensive. Kradis further suppressed them with air burst mortars, firing a total of four at the convoy. Other than taking out a few foot soldiers, the vehicles were intact from the mortar barrage, but forced to a crawl.

"Enemy is under suppression, their advance has been slowed. Reloading."

The strategy Blade had planned out was working. As Mike's rounds began to pepper the convoy, they started to spread out and halt, forming a defensive circle - but that maneuver was shattered as the Javelin missiles screamed in from overhead and further threw the formation into chaos. Though the barrage didn't cause as much (simulated) destruction as hoped, the effect was enough to pin the group, and co-ordinated perfectly with the fire-and-maneuver Blade had directed. The Roughriders team was now in place to outflank the 'hostiles'. As they moved, Blade fired the mortar on his machines' shoulder with precise changes of elevation and timing, a quartet of rounds thumping out of the tube in rapid succession to arrive all at the same time, two hi-ex and two AP to land squarely on the vehicles and dismounted troops. Another pair of trucks went down, before practice small-arms and mounted machine-gun rounds lashed back at the attacking team. Silver weaved and bobbed between the sparse cover, opening fire with his autocannon and head-mounted guns in reply, replying to Kradis' words with a clipped 'Roger, keeping you covered. Raisa, suppress the far end of the convoy. Nawlin, move up to close range. I'll provide covering fire".
Another pair of rounds from the mortar; smoke to screen the advance and a screen of chaff to disorient the sensor picture as the vulpine covered his allies movement.

"Acknowledged. Hold up a 'sec boss I am picking something up." Kensington replied, squinting his eyes a bit as he peered into the screen that showed the live feed of his thermal camera. He spotted a cluster of heat signatures ahead and spoke into his mic before proceeding to investigate his discovery. "Thermal's picking up something, might be reinforcements." The airman reported, almost flinching the moment friendly artillery came whistling down on some hostiles but quickly steeling himself and proceeding with the earlier motion.

The images slowly began to separate and form into shapes as he approached, soon they revealed a series of defenses, gears, small rocket squads, and a mortar team stationed near the farm. Ontop of one of the grain silos revealed a man peering into a device of some sort and shifting around where he stood, as if speaking into a radio. Seconds later the mortars came to life and began their bombardment on the approaching LDF Gears.

That was all the wolf could see before an alarm sounded in the cockpit, lights were flashing and that meant one thing. In a split second the senior airman pressed down on the counterneasure trigger, making flares and chaffs rain down from the sky to ensure the helicopter's safety. It wasn't a moment too soon for the pilot, just a few quick moments later a missile whistled by his aircraft. Maxwell, in response to the close call quickly made a retreat but only after he had taken note of his location. It hadn't occurred to him the other's might have observed his close bump with the risk of a take down, but when it came to his mind the wolf quickly spoke in a more firm, if not shaken tone, the country accent being replaced by a more professional 'air combatant' voice.

"Advise, ground teams, anti air and GEAR spotted, also hostile artillery and potentiality dangerous infantry spotted. I was not able to get a good look at their equipment but I have location GRID: 032, 116. Main objective description matches that position. Proceed with caution." He said, accidentally leaving his microphone on as he sat back in his seat and tried to relax a bit. "Well god damn I wasn't expecting that. Don't give a damn or not if it's simulation them assholes should know missiles scare the shit out of pilots." The voice was shaken if none the least, but fortunately it seemed the country accent had returned to the wolf's tone, fortunately for him that is.

Anticlimactic.
Training exercises could be described with many words, but 'anticlimactic' was the one that came to Raisa's head at this moment. Typically, when a large rocket or mortar strike was fired during a mission, it was quite the exciting event, as the ground shook from explosions, dust and debris was kicked up and enemies were blown to bits. However, in training missions, in which dismembering OPFOR GEARS was typically frowned upon, training shells were used, which kicked up dust and made a somewhat believable 'boom', but lacked the destructive nature of real shells. Instead of arms and weapons flying off in multiple directions, the members and other functions of the targeted armor simply ceased operation if they were considered to be "damaged" by the computers.

Nonetheless, it was still a rather satisfying sight. There was still the whistling of the shells as they went through the air and the blasting off in the distance that translated over to training without any problems and for that, Raisa was glad. Shortly after the strike, Blade fired his own mortars, further "damaging" the already shaken enemy. Upon connection of the shells, he issued her an order; "Raisa, suppress the far end of the convoy.", he said as his GEAR moved through the sparse cover, firing its autocannon and head-mounted guns as it moved. Raisa moved her own machine alongside it, taking potshots at the convoy with her wrist-mounted fifteen millimeter cannon and she responded as she moved towards a piece of cover where she would have a better shot on the rear of the convoy.

"Understood! Unlock primary weapon!" In response to her voice command, her GEAR unlocked the Avto-30 cannon from its attachment to her right shoulder. Inside the cockpit, she made a movement as if reaching for the weapon and "gripped" it as she "felt" it in her hand. In reality, she wasn't actually touching it, but thanks to the high synchronization between her pilot's suit and the GEAR's sensors, Raisa was given tactile, pressure and even miothermic feedback, allowing her to easily use the weapon without having to default to preset movements for reloading, firing or other actions and giving a tenfold boost in efficiency. Though, and to her delight, it seemed that the rest of her comrades were familiar enough with the systems of their GEARS that their efficiency in using their weapons, even in older GEARS, was just about as good as herself.

Leaning over the cover and with her rifle in hand, she took aim at the far-end of the convoy. A crosshair and other aiming assists were brought up onto her HUD as she centered the rifle and when she was sure that she would be effective in firing, she pulled the trigger. Anticlimactic her earlier remark came up once again as she felt the significantly lower kick and recoil of her rifle thanks to the training ammunition. If she had to compare it to something, she could say it was as if she was using the Avto-15 and not the Avto-30 that she was "holding" in "her" hands. Nonetheless, it seemed effective as shots were landed on the enemy. A shot to side of a technical caused it to stop firing and another to a GEAR's leg caused it to seize up and fall over; a rather comical sight.

Raisa stifled a laugh at this as she continued to lay down suppressive fire, the digital ammo-counter on the rifle quickly going down. Within a few seconds, she had reached zero, with made the rifle automatically eject the large magazine and she brought her GEAR back down behind the cover. She used her right hand to reach for another from her left shoulder-mounted ammo-carrier and once she had grabbed the first one that fell into her hand, she slotted it into the rifle and it cocked automatically. Once again, she rised and began to fire, until most of the dangers at the far-end had been defeated, save for an obsolete APC and light tank. Raisa dove into a cover with a better view on these two targets, both of them firing at her, causing the dust to kick up around her machine's feet as she moved and the shells from the tank shaking the ground.

When she reached the cover, she placed her rifle back on her back and leaned out from behind the cover, aiming her Flanker's right wrist at the convoy. "Fire HVSS/SA missiles." A chime from her helmet indicated that the voice command was understood and a locking indicator appeared on her HUD. For some reason, however, the locking took more time than usual and the firing of the two vehicles came dangerously close to her. Panicking, she fired without a lock and two missiles flew haphazardly towards the vehicles. One went straight into the light-tank, "destroying" it, but the other exploded harmlessly in the dirt. The APC continued firing at her and she couldn't risk breaking cover to finish it off. "Raisa here. I've eliminated most threats at the rear of the convoy, but an APC has me pinned down. Requesting assistance." She reported over comms as the thirty-five millimeter shells of the APC's autocannon thumped against her cover.

~As a strategist, I am the ultimate liar, a practitioner of deception and bound by the chains of secrets. Is that the kind of person you could ever call a friend~ Amelia

Amelia stood straight, her hands held neatly behind her back as she looked straight ahead at her two superior officers. She wore nothing apart from her black turtle-neck, assault pants, boots and a beret which bore the military insignia. Her sunburned hair was tied neatly into a bun, completing her clear disciplined appearance. She'd been called before Brigadier Vorden and Major General Turek to discuss something to do with her placement in the Roughriders. Both officers studied her harshly, expressions hard as stone before eventually Turek spoke, "At ease Lieutenant" he said in a deep rumble, Amelia visibly relaxing but keeping her hands neatly behind her back. Vordon stepped forwards, "We've asked you here on the understanding of your skills and prowess in field strategy, we've read you reports and suffice it to say you are a clear asset to our military" he said as he leaned back against a table. "Thank you sir" replied Amelia before Turek picked up from where Vordan left off, "The Roughriders are currently engaged in a training exercise and some of the brass, ourselves included aren't convinced that they are worth the funding and our time" he said before motioning to a large screen which lit up with multiple camera feeds, some of which showed the Roughriders in action, "We would like you to watch their progress as they proceed and feed us your honest opinions to the questions we ask you, spare no details, understood?" he said sternly. Amelia gave a single nod, "Yes sir, I'll do my very best" she replied with a brisk salute. Both officers gave a nod before they turned to the screens, watching as the Roughriders continued their training exercise..

Shona felt a building sense of nervous anticipation as the data continued to pour in. That sense spiked as the Colonel's unit engaged, and the drone feed showed the second enemy unit moving to support their comrades. They'd be on top of the main force if nothing was done.

"Recon, eyes on that unit. On my go, I want them taken out before they pass our position."

"Roger!" Shona replied, kicking her GEAR into motion, using the feeds and terrain maps to find herself a spot that would put her in optimal firing range when the unit came into view. Her Rapier knelt and shouldered its rifle, data from the weapon's almost disproportionately large optics filling her displays. Her fingers settled just above the firing studs on her stick, and she blinked sweat from her eye as she keyed the com. "Ready to fire!"