[IC] GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

[HopelessIncubus]

Mike was calmly and methodically firing on the enemy, watching the red lines ark into the group*

"Nawlin, move up to close range. I'll provide covering fire".

Blade crackled though his helmet. A trouble makers grin split mike face under its composite mask.

"Aye sir, moving in to skirmish distance" he replied, prowler standing to fire a cluster of shots before backing behind the hill and cutting left. behind the tree line prowler wove between the stand of scrub pines before hooking its right arm around a particularly robust specimen, looping around and using the momentum from the turn, to propel him over the hill at speed. he had briefly scouted this position on his way in, and saw the light screen of trees as an exit, but not the best, but in this case it would do.

"Raisa here. I've eliminated most threats at the rear of the convoy, but an APC has me pinned down. Requesting assistance."

mike listened and made a snap decision, playing safe hadn't really faired well for him, he was ordered to close in, but as long as he did that, his location shouldn't matter to much. making a small alteration to his plan he Urged the lumbering hulk into a full sprint, using all the momentum gained from the swing.

"Nawlin here, i'm on my way Raisa, watch your head down there" he said as he and prowler crashed through the foliage, his grin fluctuating from mischievous, to uncertain. "well, Fortune favors the brave" he muttered as he braced himself, prowler following suit, raising its armored forearms to block the vulnerable sensors embedded in its head. "ladies and gentlemen keep hands and feet inside the ride at all times while in motion!" mike cried temporarily drunk on the rush of his own stupidity as the jumpjets flared into violent life.

Prowler flew over the trees as mike whooped, hastily working with the computer systems to keep the Gear stable in its short moments of flight. thankfully all the momentum from the lead up sprint had carried him close to his opponent, unfortunately that meant he was going quite faster then he planned. tapping franticly mike pulsed the jets to slow the impact velocity of the massive machine. Adopting a crash position mike stopped fighting the controls and forced himself to relax, trusting in the computer and impact harness to take over.

Touchdown was rough, but recoverable. after skimming the earth on jumpjets, prowlers feet plowed large furrows into the dirt before pitching into a forward roll, ready for disaster, mike steered the roll to send prowler sprawling into a ditch. "Nawlin here, ready to...assist and engage" he grunted, stowing the rifle and equipping his shotgun as spectral versions of enemy fire played over his screen.

[Slamurai]

Intuition kicked in when the lead GEAR's foot slammed down on the earth at the right edge of the riverbed. Myrina jolted her wrists, bringing her machine's rifle to bear on the target GEAR, and as she laid her thumb into the trigger, she roared into the mic.

"Take 'em down, Recon!"

The OPFOR GEARs at the base of the hill stumbled, dummy rounds equipped for the excersize pelting their position. They scrambled for what little cover there was on their side of the terrain, letting off panicked rounds at the Recon team in attempt to cover their maneuver.

Myrina licked her lip as the GEAR she'd been gunning for flashed on the interface screen - a simulated indication of damage to the machine's right shoulder. The GEAR's arm slumped over, controls locked in a 'damaged' state. It shuddered at the force of the dummy rounds before scrambling behind a foliage-thick outcrop. Almost as an afterthought, she launched a staccato of mortar shells at the frenzied unit, trying to further disorient and knock them out.

As the shells burst on the other side of the riverbed, Myrina felt shells tearing into the ground close to her own position. Maxwell's voice rang in her headset, warning of hostile artillery aimed at the LDF position. She cursed, knowing that the bombardment would force the Recon team from the hill, and disrupt the ambush on the shaken GEARs.

"They're targeting our position with mortars! Recon, we need to get off this hill and engage from another angle!"

[Kyelin]

Come on, dammit. Reload faster, they're getting closer... There wasn't much room for Kradis to maneuver, as the enemy started to close in and limit his fire options. Hopefully, these guys would cover his ass if these bandits started to prioritize him. "Javelin's loaded" was the only response the pilot got, as his L/OS notified him that he'd been given permission to rain down more hellfire. With that, two more training Javelins were launched, soaring and dancing around each other high into the air. They dipped down and spiraled more, as they impacted harmlessly with two more trucks, billows of dummy smoke rising and knocking those targets out of the fight.

While the last two missiles were loaded, the jackal flung several more mortars down range, and actually managed to take down the damaged GEAR he'd missed earlier, along with some more militia soldiers. The hostile machine stopped firing, and entered into a standby crouch to simulate destruction, to help indicate it was no longer a target. Kradis was satisfied with the progress of the mission so far, and mildly surprised that there were no friendly casualties yet. These younger soldiers were actually holding there own, and had so far, exceeded his expectations. The recon team, especially, was calculated and vicious, giving the enemy further away hell, he imagined.

[Minder]

"Take 'em down, Recon!"

Shona's GEAR shook as her rifle cracked, simulation shells zipping out across her viewscreen to "impact" the enemy machines - or, that would have been the case, if she hadn't been so nervous her first shot arced over her target's shoulder. Swearing under her breath, she quickly corrected, pumping another trio of shots downrange as the GEARs began to react. These caught her opposite number in the leg, the mecha lurching and falling in a heap as it tried to make a run for cover.

That'll do... She switched targets, concentrating her fire with Myrnia while that still had clear shots. The rumble of the near mortar miss could be felt even through her hull, and the bat's eyes went wide, darting over her scanners.

"Roger!" She replied, voice tight, lowering her rifle and wheeling around as her computer plotted another firing position.

[HopelessIncubus]

Nawlin peeked over the lip of the ditch and quickly ducked as the APC opened fire. all things considered, he was happy with his stunt, he had landed broadside the vehicle trapping Raisa. gripping the shotgun in his hands he blind fired over the ledge.

"Good news raisa, I have their attention." mike said firing simulated tungsten darts the size of expo markers. "working on the vehicle" he continued as the plastic 60mm shells piled at prowlers feet. as his ammo count clicked to 0 he dropped the mag and slapped a fresh one in. silently wishing he had requested grenades he switched to his pistol, waiting for a string of 35mm slugs to end. sensing a pause he rolled up and aimed before firing a salvo at the APC, the 25mm pistol roaring as the lines intersected the parked light armor.

"APC Down!" mike cheered before the surrounding enemies trained on him and he charged for the relative safety behind the disabled armor. "oh...RUNNING!"

[Ramzam]

Adrian’s whole body tensed as the order came in and his team lead took the first shot. Alerting the whole opposing group threw a bit of a spanner in the works, but it wasn’t anything to cry about. If anything, it was his own fault for not communicating his plan to begin with. “I forgot we barely knew each other,” Adrian said to himself as his GEAR opened fire.

The target, still motoring along on its tracks, shook and spun to face the L-68 without compensating and flung itself to the ground. A fresh round cycled into Adrian’s rifle and he planted the second shot directly into what he assumed to be the other GEAR’s cockpit. The signature of the opposing GEAR vanished as it assumed a noncombatant stance and Adrian turned his attention to the actions of his other team members. They had managed to bring one of the targets down and chased another into cover. The fight had begun to kick up some dust, but he could pick out one of the other downed GEARs feebly attempting to aim at the group from its position on the ground. He took aim to finish it off and managed to put it out of its misery before the simulated artillery forced him into a temporary retreat.

Adrian spoke into his radio link with the recon team. “Can any of you get eyes on that GEAR without crossing the bridge?”

[Milkman]

Oliver watched the recon team taking firering position. His teammates didn't waste any time to start the engagement as the sound of roaring guns filled the air. He could see how Myria and Shona started to fire upon the 3 makeshift GEARS from the river crossing. As the tiger moved his GEAR into position to support Shona against any treat that would dare to come close he could feel the tension rising. This was the moment they had all been looking forward too. Time to prove that they were all at least slightly competent at doing their jobs. The tiger watched how Shona took her first shots. The first on missed but she quikcly corrected and damaged the GEAR forcing to crawl for cover Oliver opened up his radio "Shona, I got you covered"

Oliver had barely spoken or his cockpit started to glow with warning lights. His radar has picked up incoming mortar shells. Only a second after, Myria's voice came over the radio with the order to relocate. Oliver quickly used his GEAR's computers to calculate the trajectories and impact locations of the mortar shells and quickly noticed how all the shells seemed to land more closely to his GEAR compared to his teammates. With all the enemy radio's jammed it is impossible to use it to send coordinates and the tiger was pretty sure that the 3 GEAR's they where ambushing could not have given through their location because he was transmitting the jamming signals non-stop. Then the realization sank in that they the enemy mortars where targeting the broadcast location. Oliver quickly started to fall back to avoid being hit and opened his radio. "Fuck, they are targeting me. Or to be more precisely, they are using my jamming signal to determine our location!"

This fact placed both Oliver and the recon team for a tough call. If Oliver would stop jamming the last remaining GEAR would be able to signal through their locations and the recon team would still be under fire from the mortars. Also the precise composition of the team might become known to the enemy. With such vital data, the enemy could use their assets to defend more efficiently. This would definitely make their job more difficult when assaulting the main camp. It was pretty clear to the tiger that the enemy formation would have to be destroyed before he could cease jamming their communications.

Oliver suddenly broke his GEAR out of formation without much warning and boosted his GEAR up to full speed while trying to avoid the incoming mortar shells. To an outsider it might look like the tiger was fleeing the scene with his tail between his legs but the next mortar shell impacted further away from his teammates and closer to him. Luckily Oliver's Saxknot had excellent radars and computers that he used to calculate the points of impact. The tiger tried to navigate his GEAR through the barrage of mortar shells without getting hit. None the less, every next shell seemed to land closer to his GEAR. Oliver could feel the sweat running across his forehead as he piloted his GEAR with far more skill then people would expect from a rookie soldier. Even so, Oliver know that it was only a matter of time before he would receive the first damage of the day. The tiger could only hope that his team would take out the enemy GEARs before he would receive a direct hit.

[Rhona W]

Seeing Mike press his advantage and another volley of Kradis' rockets auger in, Blade pressed the attack on his end too. The extra firepower would reduce some of the heat on Raisa, and allow Nawlin to take out the APC. The remainder of the vehicles in the convoy that were still armed and able to fight back were still attempting to train their weapons on the GEARs attacking them, but every fresh attack whittle the already small number further.
Like Mike, he charge forward, but not before throwing out a good cloud of smoke and chaff as decoys to mask his approach, and changing direction and heading multiple times. The autcocannon rifle clamped tight in the GEARs' hands thrummed and chattered as he ran, the miniguns mounted in the bipedal machines' head joining in as he swept their withering fire across the outlines of dismounted infantry. Simulated kill-markers popped up as their 'net-linked equipment locked them out as 'killed'.
The rounds fired from the large autocannon hit square, and another pair of light utility vehicles disappeared off the screen. The APC went down next, and Blade slowed down, stalking the Harlock along the line of the convoy, like an angry giant. No further markers popped up, and he snapped words into the comm channel.
"All targets eliminated. Form up and double-time to the recon unit. We'll gather at their position and then prep for the second stage of the op, the assault on the hostile stronghold".
Switching channels, he toggled into Myrinas' freak, and spoke in short, concise words, cognizant of the fact she and her team were engaged in combat.
"Sitrep? Tangoes here are down, moving to your position to support, over".

[Slamurai]

"Tch!" Myrina sucked her teeth as Oliver darted, narrowly avoiding the shelling that dug up mounds of earth at his GEAR's legs. Without his jamming, the lone GEAR could call in backup and relay details of her unit. But with it, Oliver ran the risk of getting toasted. It was a difficult scenario, and a fresh commander might've buckled. Myrina, however, was worked up, by the weighing impression she strove to make on the Colonel, Oliver's pre-op shenanigans, and the feeling of battle returning to her after so long. Looking back to the damaged GEAR that fumbled behind the rock at the base of the hill, her brow narrowed as she spoke through the comm.

"Adrian, on me!" With little more explanation, she zipped down the slope, wheels speeding her GEAR to the last survivor of the ambush. Myrina had brought Adrian along for backup, in case her gamble took a wrong turn. The OPFOR pilot noticed her descent and in an attempt to stave her off, raised his rifle and spat autocannon shells in her direction. Myrina zig-zagged, narrowly avoiding contact with the gunfire. Closing the distance, she brought up her own rifle, and in the other hand, extended her machine's rotary blade. To get the artillery off their backs, Myrina had taken a decisive risk.

Rounds burst from her rifle's barrel, keeping the GEAR pinned down. They hammered the rock, kicking up dust and earth where they landed, causing the OPFOR's cameras to become obscured. As Myrina reached the GEAR, she spun on her wheels, stretching out her blade arm in a sweep that sliced into the machine's head. Inside the cockpit, the sensors would sputter out, and screens flash to black. The force of Myrina's speeding GEAR brought the ramshackle machine to its back, and a casual burst from her rifle finished it off, disappearing from the indicator screen for good. As the machine locked in place, Myrina hailed Oliver over the radio. "Oliver, kill the jamming signal!"

A moment after, the Colonel's grizzled voice crept through Myrina's headset. "Sitrep? Tangoes here are down, moving to your position to support, over."
"Copy, three tangoes down at our position. They used our jamming signal as an artillery target. We can't continue blocking their comms."

[Cartwright]

Kensington took a deep breath once he was confident that he was in a safe location. No more missiles, no more bad problems for the time being. The pilot quickly took advantage of that and assessed his condition both physically and mentally. The helicopter is in good shape, missiles still scare the crap out of him whether fake or not, but needless to say he is fine. With everything back in order the wolf turned tail so the helicopter faced the area of operations then flicked the auto hover on, letting the helicopter hover on standby mode as he observed the fight with his thermal equipment. "Recon your CAS is on standby. Remember there's anti air and SAM in the AO.. I can shake it off but it'll be a lot more peachy if those missile jockeys are dealt with." He said, relaxing in his seat for the time being.

[HopelessIncubus]

With blade charging mike slid to a crouch behind the APC and fired at the remaining targets, the 25mm disarming armor, and the 7.62mm mini-guns marking infantry as KIA, causing them to curse and gesture angrily at the two GEARs. in moments all targets were down, and mike stood from behind the makeshift barricade.

"All targets eliminated. Form up and double-time to the recon unit. We'll gather at their position and then prep for the second stage of the op, the assault on the hostile stronghold".

"aye sir, thanks for the assist" mike said before reloading his spent weapons, and retrieving his rifle. "Raisa, you good over there?" he called, getting ready to assault the net group of hostiles.

[Rhona W]

"No problem," growled the fox, as he followed suit, ejecting the spent magazine from the autocannon rifle, and replacing it with a fresh one. Rounds clattered and whirred through the autoloader for the miniguns and the mortar, and he spun in place on the GEARs foot-wheels to face the next waypoint. "Look sharp, people - let's get moving!"

[Milkman]

Smoke and earth reached to the sky as Oliver piloted his GEAR through a hailstorm of mortar shells. It might be all practice shells but none the less the tiger found it exciting to avoid the virtual destruction that rained down from above. He could feel his hearth pumping as the next shell landed even closer to his GEAR then the previous one. Adrenaline rushed through Oliver’s body as he piloted his GEAR with great precision through the desert like terrain utilizing both his legs and wheels to make tight turns, boost up speed or as an emergency brake to avoid virtual death and the humiliation of being the first to get knocked out of his unit. The young tiger might have a reputation of misbehavior, disobedience and being a poor soldier in general, but today he showed that he could pilot a GEAR with a skill level that was way beyond of what was to be expected from someone fresh from basic training.

One of Oliver monitors flickered as it showed and overview of the battlefield the recon team was fighting on. From the corner of his eyes he could see how Myria charged her GEAR forward to engage the last remaining enemy in the area. Oliver’s team leader seemed to understand that Oliver was pushing his luck dodging mortars and that it would only be a matter of time before she had to continue the trainings mission with one team member less. For a moment he wondered what pushed Myria to put herself in harm’s way for the one guy that had put up shenanigans on their first mission. Oliver found it hard to imagine that she’d do it to save the tiger’s ass. None the less he was happy that Myria made that split second decision that would allow him to turn off his jamming antenna. After all, the powerful radio signal that was coming from the antenna put a giant target on his GEAR. As the tiger followed Myria’s ferocious assault on his monitor he totally missed the next incoming mortar.

The sudden smoke and dust blocked the visual sensors as bright red flashes in the GEAR’s cockpit indicated that Oliver’s GEAR had taken some damage. “Damn it!” cursed the Young tiger as he frantically tried to assess the situation as his GEAR came to a halt. With one look around the cockpit Oliver noticed that most of his systems where still online. He looked at the monitor showing the drone feed just in time to see Myria finishing off the last enemy GEAR with her blade. Quickly Oliver *flipped the switch and stopped the radio jamming. He could only hope that enemy artillery would cease fire now that they had nothing more to lock on too. Luckily the radar screen stayed empty. He opened up a channel to Myria “Thanks for saving me from virtual obliteration.” Spoke the tiger as he checked his computer for damage reports. Apparently the computer had decided that shrapnel has penetrated some of armor plating on the legs, damaging the hydraulic system and reducing the GEAR’s speed with about 20%. Luckily for Oliver, the damage seemed only minor.

[Rafale]

"Raisa, you good over there?" With the destruction of the APC and the end of its fire, her savior, so to speak, spoke up on comms. Rising from her position, she cracked her knuckles after putting her Avto-30 back on her back and responded.

"Couldn't be better if I tried." She began walking back towards the group, a slight spring in her step, which translated to slightly more "stomp" in her GEAR's own walking. After a good two weeks of no combat or training, she quickly found herself hitting her stride once again. As she walked over, she extended her left arm's blade and tentatively tapped on the blade with her right hand. It was blunt, a training blade, but it still caused her some "damage" as evidenced by the notification that appeared on her HUD. It was negligible, but she did feel as if she had cut herself thanks to her pilot's suit adapting for the training mission. Unconsciously, she brought her finger up to her mouth. "I appreciate the detail, but this is going a bit far..." she muttered. Her mind was taken off the idea by her leader speaking up on comms.

"Look sharp, people - let's get moving!" He said as his GEAR reloaded and began moving.

"Roger!" Raisa retracted the blade and once again picked up her rifle, her right index finger still stinging somewhat.

[Minder]

"Oh, shit..." Shona hissed under her breath as Oliver's warning went out. She had been wondering how the enemy artillery had got a bead on them so fast. Any further thought on the matter was side-lined as her computers screamed a warning at her. She threw her GEAR into a dive as one of the simulated mortar shells whistled towards her machine, narrowly avoiding a fatal hit. All she could do was urge her machine back to its feet and watch as Oliver zipped away, drawing the bombardment away from the rest of the team.

Coming to the same conclusion as the others, she swung her sights around to the last member of the enemy unit. Take him out and they wouldn't need the jammer... although if they had detected the signal any hope of stealth was gone anyway... she shook her head and looked down-range, in time to see Myrnia make her gamble. Unwilling to fire fir fear of hitting her comrade, Shona scanned the horizon for any sign of reinforcements. She still kept one camera focused on Myrnia, though, the pickup recording the goat's daring maneuver and sending it over the data link.

The bat held her breath for a moment as the jammers went down, kicking her GEAR up and moving to regroup with the rest of Recon. "Oliver, you OK?" She asked over the com, seeing damage indicators on his FOF tag. She scanned the horizon again, panting slightly inside her helmet. "Think the game is up? They gotta know we're coming now..."

[Ramzam]

“You guys could at least pretend to be bandits,” Adrian angrily grumbled, holding down the mute button on his radio, so nobody would hear. His GEAR quickly slung its rifle across its back and pulled the low caliber pistol off its leg. The machine immediately rocketed forward and broke from Myrina’s heading. When the enemy GEAR exposed itself, Adrian spat a few shots in its direction. Compared to his rifle, they were rather pitiful at the distance, but combined with his team leader’s own fire, they got the message across. He’d torn across the bridge and pivoted just in time to see the last opposing GEAR get taken down, albeit a bit more roughly than he would have hoped. Still, the situation had been taken care of.

As the tension of active combat slowly bled out of the team and they regrouped, Adrian was quick to answer Shona.

“It would surprise me if they didn’t, considering the rest of the squad’s gotten into a scuffle as well, never mind how our airman nearly got knocked outta the sky earlier.” The L-68 stowed its pistol and pulled its rifle back out, the barrel of it held skyward. “We ain’t exactly ghosts no more…doesn’t help these folks are also real military. I’m not saying bandits are stupid, they just wouldn’t know how to do something like home in on a jamming signal.” Invisible inside the cockpit of his GEAR, Adrian wiggled his nose and sucked on his teeth. The little clicking noise he made carried over the radio. “The question now is, will they bunker down and wait? Or come out looking for us?”

[Rhona W]

Blade lead his section of the unit out across the valley floor, leaving behind the immobilised convoy, the 'dead' soldiers waving or hollering in banter as they left them behind. The recon team had made their way into the hills, and as the heavier-equipped team closed the distance, the muted sound of weapons-fire drifted around the hilltops and low valleys, before they crept up on the friendly signals.
"Hold position," remarked Blade as he lead them to a halt just under the crest of a hill flanking their allies position. The bridge the hostiles had been defending was on the opposite side, and then beyond on the other side of the river channel was a gently-rolling scrubby plain that lead out to where the clump of rocks and hillocks nestled the impromptu 'headquarters' of the 'bandits'.
Switching feeds to the drone-cam and composite from the various tie-ins the C3I system had around the battlefield, the fox watched as the last hostile was finished off with no great hassle by Adrian.
"Blade here," he called to the other team. "We're in close proximity, moving to join up with you now. Maxwell has info on the disposition of forces at the target, regroup and we'll prep for the next evolution. Stand by"
Switching frequencies, he contacted the Claw, speaking directly to the captain. Within a few minutes, he'd directed the landships other helicopter, the utility model, to standby to lift the infantry strike team into position once the GEARs and Maxwell had secured the area from threats.
"Maxwell, re-play your sensor intel from your flyby - let's get this strike right on the first try".

[Kyelin]

It is done. For now. With no more targets to eliminate, the battlefield was deathly silent, save for the comm chatter from the recon team and the distant gunfire slowly dying down, as the recon team cleaned out house, before it died completely. It was now that Kradis started to pack up, Gammorah's leg stabilizers folding back into their recesses, and it's weapons stowing themselves. He was now ready to join the main group again, turning slowly and re-entering wheeled mode, Retaking his position at the back of the group, he followed behind silently, deep in intense thought.

Knowing how bandits operated, it would be a surprise if the mock hostiles moved to engage them from the stronghold. If they were committed to playing the part of outlaws, they would be cowards, and fortify their position, unless they had caught on to the artillery fire (not a very large stretch of the imagination, by any means). That being the case, it would be an unwise move. Still, it didn't hurt to be cautious, especially since Kradis had spent nearly all the Javelins in the last engagement. As he followed the squad on the way to the next way point, he broadcasted his thoughts to them. "Kradis here. Running low on heavy ordinance, no chance of a resupply engineering squad being out here, right?"

[Cartwright]

Kensington was busy adjusting his altitude and position around the time the reunion was taking place, his eyes scanning the farmland ahead until a new request with his name on it came his way. "E-Eh? Oh right gotcha boss... Okay.." The pilot said over the comms, trailing off for a moment as he recollected the intel he reported not too long ago. "Target is GRID: 032, 116. Hostile ground teams, artillery stations, and GEAR in that designated AO. Listen, boss if you want any air assets to enter the AO you're gonna have to deal with the SAM and AA. Be advised, though I bet 10 big ones that hostile spotter is itching to call out any good guys they find. This senior airman is not equipped for heavy CAS runs... But I still got the turret, and I am currently the designated recon and med evac if I last remember... That's what I got fer ya boss!" The wolf reported in his typical 'simple' tone, but deep inside there was a flare inside that was.. Politely asking the pilot to play the more offensive role other than the fly by one... They DID launch a missile at his child helicopter, afterall...

[Rhona W]

Blade had motioned the Harlock into action, up and over the hill and to meet the remainder of the team, as they'd reported in their situation. Bringing the team to a halt, he listened to Ken's report, scratching the bridge of his muzzle, before he produced a cigar from one of his vest pockets, and bit it, unlit, in his muzzle as he considered the situation as the helo pilot reported.
The triple-a and SAMs are our primary concern. If we don't take them out first, then Ken's out of action, and we can't deliver our strike team unless they've got security. Same with pullin' out the hostages after too: we need a secure airspace to make sure they get out. We can hit 'em at long range with arty, but we need precision this time. That takes accurate shots on target...
Pulling up his C3I interface once more, Blade worried the cigar from one side of his muzzle to the other as he studied the statistics and crunched numbers. Finally, he switched onto the squad-wide freek and spoke to everyone in a low and fast tone, brimming with enthusiasm and unwavering confidence.
"Okay, team, lissen up. Y'all kicked ass hard in the first round. We left the beegees hurtin' an' angry. They're gonna be lookin' ta make us look stupid the second time around - but we're gonna leave 'em hurtin'. Thanks ta Ken's eagle-eye action we got a good handle on what we're up against."
He opened a datalink channel to the other squad members and fed them the battleplan as he drew it up.
"So, this is what we're gonna do. The primary targets for our assalt will be the SAMs and other triple-A. Secondaries will be the anti-armour teams and the GEARS. The beegees don't have any airpower in theatre, so Ken's one of our assets if we can knock out those guns an' missiles. So - Adrian and Shona, y'all will be our sharp-shooters. To that end, Nawlin an' Raisa - y'all will head up the advance an' act as spotters to feed target info ta our long-guns here. Y'all will advance usin' the cover ta the south. Ta cover yer advance, the rest o' us will launch an assault from the south-west, an' target the hostile vehicles and th' infantry. Nawlin an' Raisa, once th' target data's passed on an' th' AAA is outta play, y'all hit the GEARs in a close assault, which'll be timed wi' our sweep inta th' AO, an' a precision strike from Ken on the hostiles remainin'.
"The decisive factor in this op will be movin' fast, an' hittin' hard. All of this needs ta happen within mere seconds of each other - we can't delay, or else they'll have time ta rally their defence, and we'll be, ta put it bluntly, fucked like whores on a cold Northern Night. We gotta move like greased lightnin' here. There's no room for error - move fast, and hit hard! Ask any questions y'all have now. "
He paused for a moment, before speaking with a more conversational and fathely tone.
"I'm impressed by what y'all have done so far. I know we ain't worked together yet, but y'all have shown me a will to do well, and y'all are sure as hell damn good fighters. I know y'all can do this, an' I'm gonna be in there in th' shit wi' the rest of ya!"