FourtyTwo

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

I thought I was going to do a short post, but I really wanted an introspective post into Max- I think I channel a common theme of pragmatic fatalism into my characters (Max certainly has parallels with Jan but I'd say he's far more exiting and a little more centrally flawed!).

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max nodded in response to Silverwind's comments, taking into account what the wise old hand that was his commander had to say. The chaos of it all, Max had to say, was something he enjoyed and somehow used to his advantage. Where others saw distractions and problems, he saw flexibility and the ability to rip up the playbok that normal warfare almost rote-demanded. In particular the fact that they were theoretically on the guerilla side meant that they could use more disgresion to

"Aye, sir- nothing for granted in a place like that it sounds like. I can work with that." Max said, chuckling as he heard the engines kicking in, the aircraft wobbling and erupting into noise. Well, that was the end of long meaningful conversations, the lion chuckled....and probably as Silverwind said, a good time to grab a seat.
"Yeah, you're about right there...I'm gonna grab some sleep till we're closer in. I need a bit of headspace, Colonel- I'll be back in a few." Max understated, almost a classic trait, knowing full well a "few" meant a few hours in reality...

Grabbing a seat in the seated area of the stealth transport, the lion knew that the quicker he got some shut-eye in, the better. Less time to think about just how insane this was about to be. He loved it, but sometimes it took putting that away into a small part of his head, Maxwell considered to himself. Just remember perspective, he thought to himself. You're gonna fling yourself out of a plane in a heavy piece of metal, fly it into a potentially teeming LZ and try and land under whatever conditions, wind or gunfire came. Then came the harder bit- not dying after that, operating deep behind enemy lines and as if there was a cherry on top, making sure none of his team came to any harm. In an almost strange sense, he could live with death, after all, the operations him and his team did put him harm's way more often than not. It'd be a tragic event, sure, and his family would probably be horrified by it, maybe just annoyed at themselves for not stopping him. But same time, Max took solace in the fact that he owned his own choices. Flawed as they were, he was an indivudal who cared for those around him, not a collectivist who was urging to find his own self. Perhaps that was fatalistic- but in other ways, Max knew that it was right where he belonged, in all of this chaos and fighting.

Keeping the pilot's helmet on his knee and his head back against the transport's divider in the back, the lion exhaled as he looked out to the distance, almost disconnected for a moment from the situation. As much as he didn't want to think, thoughts came back to him, rapid rate. Almost like a harrowing memory of sort. Beneath the exterior of the fun-loving, quirky and rebellious lion was a hardened and conflicted operator, the look on his face reflecting an almost vacant and soulful expression. Lions were perhaps odd like that- leaders, figureheads, the brave Arvarans that they looked to for guidance and courage. Generals, politicans, lawyers, police officers. What a lion Max wasn't, was the one lion that had that civility about him that came with absolute ferocity. That look of chivalry, the look of someone you trusted to be graceful and civil just seemed to splinter more and more when he looked to his siblings at times. It made him the outcast, the isolated one in his mind, leaning towards the ferocity more than the smart and sleek look a lion had. If you looked from an external point of view, that wasn't the case. But Max saw it as that, and in his head, that occupied his thoughts.

The reality was that instead of a noble, chivalrous almost idea of what a soldier would be protecting their country was bullshit to him. It took a fear, a teror equivalent to what they were fighting to make them scared. Someone to make the bad guys remember, they weren't gonna sleep at night well because people like him were coming for them. With whatever tools or methods required, it was just the order of things. And after a while, like Silverwind had, Max thought to himself, you stopped thinking too much about the details. It all sort of became one blur. From an external view, perhaps it was almost like a PTSD-like symptom, a mind that was already just unable to keep laughing it all away permenently. That did help, but there were one, maybe two things that stuck. Stuff that he hoped didn't show, or come through. But it was one that ran deep, that thought of acting in cold blood, or just letting horrifying things happen before your very eyes, helpless. Watching a distant thermal image go limp after a shot, or watching the sight of civilians being forced into a truck at gunpoint from afar felt disenchanting, almost like he was removed from the situation, especially in something like a GEAR. A lesser mind would have lost it by now, or at least, chosen to walk away while they still had control. Still, Max knew he was in it now, and it was better he was in that slot than anyone else. More capable, more willing, and more importantly, able to compartmentalise it when it absolutely mattered. Better more damage were to happen to some poor bastard with a gun than a civilian on a train back in Solernia, the lion mused- and that wasn't even on his mind anymore. But it was there, somewhere. Someday, he knew he'd suffer badly for it, but till then, and so long as he kept up a life that gave him exitement and constant occupation, he wouldn't deal with those chaotic concequences for a while.

Max had to think sometimes, it shouldn't have been this way. He should have done something meaningful with himself. Quit a year ago, taken the pay, joined the police, maybe his sister at that law firm, the place she always thought he'd succeed. For such a messy haired-character he could clean himself up, turn straight-edge and live a civil life doing that exceptionally well. It wasn't like his intelligence would hold him back, he was plenty smart enough for it, and plenty street-smart to thrive there. But he was too stubborn, too unwilling to change. Too set on this path now, one that had already caused him all manner of shit. Pushing that thought aside was hard, an overriding one almost as he itched his eye a little, noisily yawning as he mulled his wired up mind over a little more.

"You sleepy, Max?" Anna playfully commented, Max giving a middle finger as the jaguar chuckled, setting down her own equipment and strapping into her seat.
"A bit, Anna...you know, you could do actually resting rather than bouncing off the walls before an op. Meh, leave me to it." Max replied cooly, eyes shut as he knew roughtly wherabouts Anna had sat herself down.
"Ah, but you know me. Where's the fun in doing what we do without feeling like total shit? Ahh....screw it. Sleep tight, dream warrior." Anna added, bumping Max on the shoulder as he chuckled, setting his head further back and setting off to sleep. By the time the noisy aircraft had actually left land, Max was snoring and on his way to cutting out his mind for a while.

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

@Silverwind Blade

Ah had something like this in mind!

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max replied as he watched Silverwind clamber inside, setting up his comms lines as he saw the fox appear on the holographic window on his own end. This felt a little luxurious compared to running out there, the lion mused but hey, sometimes when you were leading a team you needed a very literal towering overview of the situation in front of you. Like operating a piece of plant machinery, Max didn't feel as organic as he did on foot inside of one of these, but it felt like having a lot more power, a lot more potency and like actually not having to dive out of the way when bullets came flying. The lion to some extent had adapted his own techinqiues with the Lion Rampant to fit a reconaissance operative- whilst the Hargun was built no different to Silverwind's, the way he uttilised it seemed to be more as another implement in his arsenal, using mobility rather than anvil-like qualities in a GEAR like this. Max was no stranger to loading up a 30mm rotary cannon and going all guns blazing, but the GEAR in this layout was effectively a squad support tool rather than a battleaxe when it came to the combat environment.

"Well....it's a nice leveller, isn't it? Nothing like it at all....it just feels powerful, you know? But with all that power comes responsibility......I suppose there's nothing like the concequences you get when you've got a 30mm rifle that can hit targets over two klicks easily...or at least, they're delayed, right?" Max replied, watching on as the other GEARS followed them out, as well as the sight of his own team making their way across the tarmac apron. Maxine waved to the Lion Rampant, the team heavily loaded up for an operation like this deep in enemy lines.

He moved along, folllowing Silverwind's GEAR, adjusting his helmet as he waved back to his own team.
"They're not too bad. Couple of them you'll find a bit weird or difficult to work with, but they come up good....especially Anna. She just has a skillset that comes into its own when you just leave her to it. I've never seen anything like it, so if you need something done quietly, you call on her and leave her to it." He added, seeing the sight of the stealth transport turn up. Solernia may not have been a large or great nation, but it had its priorities right, and an aircraft like this was part of the RSDF's technologically potent capabilities. And with what was going in, including their support vehicle driven by Viper and six GEARS, it had to be up to task.

Viper headed in first, the footmobile recon team quickly getting insde before the GEARS followed suit to get to the front of the aircraft via the rear ramp. Kit taken off once they got there, they were out of the way of the GEARs storage area and in position to get their gear checked over. Get some R&R, and some last minute sleep. What was to come would be intensive. After all, dropping from high altitude into enemy territory was never an easy prospect, let alone the fighting and work that would be done when they got on the ground. Max then followed Silverwind, taking a position opposite him and setting his GEAR down in a similar position, the weaponry of his GEAR tucked away- the UAV he carried stowed in one of his webbing-styled carrying containers.

Clambering out once more, Max helped the crew members tie down his GEAR, strapping it down to the floor of the aircraft. HALO was always a problem for anyone not inside a GEAR- you needed not just an oxygen supply but a pre-breathed O2, alongside warm clothing. Inside a GEAR's sealed cockpit atmosphere that wasn't much an issue, but beyond the cold composite armour it would be. The equipment that Viper had with their Corvid packs would do that job with the almost fighter-pilot styled helmets they had, but it was never fun running pure oxygen into the bloodstream for over half an hour before a jump in more or less montonous boredom until the red light came on. After all, if you wanted to stay concious whilst you were pilotting a wingpack, you needed to actually have air to think, Max thought to himself...

Walking over to the crew area Viper had settled in, Max took a seat near his team, the settled look on his team suggesting they were just wanting to get some rest and get ready.
"So, we got any particular directives when we hit the ground?" Anna asked, Max nodding as the lion took his canteen out from his personal kit, sipping it down while he had the opportunity.
"Permimeter security, and eliminating anything that can target the GEARs immediately. Then getting our vehicle recovered, ASAP. I imagine we'll be posted up on reconaissance and following up leads the loyalists find for us." Max replied, Anna nodding as Logan pitched his hat into the conversation.
"Right, and we got much in the way of fire support?"

"Your laser points out anything for me, Silverwind and Python to shoot, Logan. We get any more, I'll let you know."
"Right. This is fucking unreal, guys. Can you believe we're about to do this....it's cool as hell!" Logan called out, Max and the gang laughing as he shook his head.

"Calm yourself, Logan. Keep your head focussed on what's to come. But you are right though." Max replied, as Maxine checked over her own Pebble quickly, running through the team's own comms and internal networking to monitor the team's pulse and general nervous state, a network that connected to Max's GEAR and then could be relayed up to Silverwind's.

"Comms should be live for us, boss, diagnostics too. Right, last chance team. Anyone feeling any sickness, any problems that my diagnostics can't pick up? No headaches, stomach-aches, colds or anything that'll make you pass out when you're huffing pure oxygen in a few hours?" Maxine asked, the medic

"I had a really dodgy curry last night." Max simply retorted with an almost signature-like sarcasm, chuckling almost at his own humour as Maxine sighed, the rest of the team shaking their head- both to the joke and to Maxine.
"Apart from Max then, sounds all good. Same as usual then. If you go hurt yourself let me know, because the sooner I can look at it the more likely I can keep you in the fight. Anyway, other than that, Max, we all good?" Maxine ashed, the rabbit looking up to Max, now finished with her own tasks
"Yeah, we're all good. I'll let you guys crack on. I need to chat with our CO- give me a few." Max said, the team nodding as he left them to it. The lion had to admit, it was nice to have a relatively easy going relationship

Moving across, Max headed back over towards Silverwind, taking a seat near the fox as the lion with the braided hair finished sipping from his canteen. The lion's outward appearance whilst not as weathered as the fox was one that seemed fluent in what was to come, not a stranger nor unmoved by the prospect of this op. In some ways, he looked almost a little too comfortable living on this side fo the edge, perhaps a little more adamant and finding his flow doing this line of work- despite the horrors that came with. The feline seemed to echo his usual positive attitude, but the underlying pragmatism he had could be seen from his time spent working with his old team again. They weren't perfect, but he made them work for him, and that was what he felt mattered- even if other COs didn't feel that way.

"The lads are all good to go, Colonel. Keep in mind what you've got in disposal- while we'll hit a lot of targets together, my team can operate fairly autonomously, and bury themselves in if they need to gather information. Same goes with hitting targets that are a little more sensitive with regards to intel or HVTs- so long as you don't put them in over their heads and give a distraction, they can usually be in and out before anyone stops them."

(Random question (may have been covered already)- what sort of terrain are they dropping into? And just for clarity, what sort of support vehicle is it?)

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

To Silverwind's comment Max nodded, agreeing fully on what he had to say. The lion had to admit, her had a way with words that certainly came with his experience and time fighting, the spinning knife in his composite-metal hand suggesting it enough. There was a certain flair, a certain slyness that came along with professional, hardened experience that Silverwind had, no doubt being part of the reason Max was even here in the first place.

They clearly had meshing personalities, or else he'd have never ended up here. Whilst Max was a man of reason, he knew that even in Solernia there was always those who hired based on personalities close to their own. The lion was perhaps an echo of Silverwind, a tangent of his own in the past, or perhaps a part of it that he wanted reinforced. There weren't many like Max, after all. Rogues were far less common these days, the lion thought. It took a good one to remind everyone how fun, and difficult they were. Luckily for Max, just how he managed Anna he felt Silverwind "got" his wavelength, understood his play. And that for him was reassuring, to say the least. Taking his own M23 up, the lion pulled the charging handle and inspected the bolt, whistling as he looked back across to the rest of the crew.

"Aye, Colonel. We'll get ourselves finished up here. Logan, gals, get yourselves sorted ten minutes and over to the Lion Rampant. Good to meet you all, Python. " The lion commented, aware Silverwind had said all there was to say, and the team had geled in a little more now, getting to know each other a bit from there. He had finished up his bits and pieces in here- taking with him his M23 ISS, M8A, combat webbing and grenades loadout, as well as his trusty K8 knife and combat ancillaries. Rope, basic toolkits, and so on- a general-purpose walkabout assault pack that GEAR or not was always in his arsenal.

With a gentle scoot Viper had picked up equipment, Corvids and all their various bits of kit, the look of the team mean in the next few minutes. Whilst not equipped like most heavier infantry units, Viper seemed to have a very reductive, mobile-focussed attitude. In their equipment they had special-forces grade helmets and optics, with lightweight armour that provided key protection whilst allowing for movement. In the team's various units their specialisations could be seen as well. Maxine had taken her standard medical kit, a much more comprehensive battlefield surgery and advanced first aid kit, whilst Logan had calibrated his PLU device and coupled his explosives to a remote detonator. Anna on the other hand had loaded up with a grenadier's load-bearing vest on top of her modular armour, taking magazines of 40mm over the heavier drums. It made fire less consistent or reliable, but weight was key for this team- so anything for the MGL's weight would be needed. Coupled to the Corvid packs that they were slowly equipping themselves with and putting on loosely, Viper were practically complete- well, all bar their lion.

Meanwhile, Max had headed back towards the GEARS hangar and already tooled himself. Taking a breath, he punched in his key-code and opened up the Lion Rampant's entry port, chuckling almost at the bit. It had been too long. What, barely a week? Well....it always came back to him fast. Clambering inside, he could only smirk as he secured himself into place, the hydrogen-based power supply kicking in and whirring everything up to life. Keeping the door open, he could see the rest of the team coming over through the optics, bringing over their heavier weaponry. Max was already carrying a fairly substantial supply of ammunition for the team on his GEAR, as the team begun loading it into the other webbing pouch that the Lion Rampant was carrying. They loaded up their heavier munitions, including Anna's MGL and Hopper's AT launcher.

"Don't lose any of it, Max!" Maxine commented, the rabbit placing her launcher inside a case that went into the webbing, Max chuckling in return as he poked his head out. Once the team was finished, Max metaphorically and quite literally stood at the helm of the group.
"You better have gotten insurance with your hold baggage then!" He jested, as he turned the GEAR on its axis and led the way, gently getting moving and catching sight of the rest of Python and Silverwind getting themselves finished up. The Lion Rampant whirred gently, almost politely after it's latest service and the corvid-wearing reconaissance team led in front, ready to fight.

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max had finished up with the GEAR, happy with the state of affairs with his equipment. The webbing-styled equipment containers would be helpful to carry in more gear but mounted on a GEAR, he was aware of the effects it would have. Still, Max had carried worse under a GFDS, he had to remind himself of that. Despite being relatively young compared to the silver fox leading this team, he was aware of that bit of kit. He could leave it for now though, wanting to get a bit of time to himself- all his jobs for the moment finished. GEAR ready, weapons prepared, DZ discussed and any other bits of logistics organised. The team would have a vehicle to use when they were on the ground, and that trailer too would be a help for keeping the team armed up. Of course, Max knew that Viper would want to minimise it, so he could divide them into two- Anna and Logan worked well together as a hunter-killer team, with Maxine at the wheel of whatever vehicle they had.

Heading inside the tiny room he'd been assigned back in the barracks of the military site they were on, he checked over his pilot's suit, the modified type he used when disembarking the GEAR, as well as a spare baseball cap to keep with him on disembarkation from the GEAR. He didn't like the heavy pilot's helmet for lighter infantry work, even though it could be a lifesaver in CQC situations- so it stayed on when he was breaching or entering buildings. For sniping, or any other type of marksman work he prefered the tan-coloured baseball cap over his faerie locks to keep the sun off his eyes and keep his hair from going everywhere. One disadvantage he reminded himself, of choosing the counterculture was that man, it was a lot of work. So much for sticking it to the man...

With that, the lion made up his bed and threw himself on top of his sheets, leaning back against his pillow and looking up at the walls, sighing. This was the life he'd chosen alright, the one that involved putting himself on the line for Solernia. It never felt like that though entirely. It was more for the people he worked with, and because it protected people. In some weird ways, he was like his brothers and sisters, following their example. For the greater good, but in his own, chaotic and strange way. Perhaps that was why they accepted him for what he was, even as reluctantly as they did. Max didn't like to dwell on it much, given the fact that he had a mission coming up that was going to be rough as hell. Urban combat in a GEAR was not as easy as some people made it out to be, it was gruelling, tough and required a lot of mental willpower. So a bit of rest was gonna come in handy right now.

The lion would happily kill someone for a couple more hours of nap time. But this was just gonna have to do.

----

A little later on and the rest of Viper were finishing up in the armoury and signing out their weaponry, the sight of them mean as they stood in their little corner. It was nearly go-time for this operation, and they were getting their last touches on after finishing up their work. Viper Team were clearly their own thing, an odd assortment of people Max had clearly trusted, even in spite of their flaws. looking on at Python coming in and grabbing their own small-arms. Without Max, the team kept to themselves but on this occasion, dared to venture over, the black jaguar, the flemish giant and the red squirrel tooled up in their battle dress. The grey-golden camoflage pattern was a little different, though not distinctive, the team tooled up in modular lightweight body armour and carrying their tactical combat helmets.

"Hello, Python. Corporal Anna-Marina Caldeira, at your disposal. This is PFC Kestrel, and Specialist Maxine Pavard. Your reconaissance people. We'll keep out of your way, just don't make too much noise around ours." Anna was blunt, very couth yet almost direct to the point, the black-skinned jaguar as elusive as many had heard her out to be. Most CO's had lost patience with her- Anna was highly intelligent yet was almost to the point of running on absolutes, with a sarky sense of humour that pissed off a lot of people.

It made her incredibly efficient at what she did as someone who often had to kill in cold blood, but there was a very good reason she'd never gone any further in the RSDF than she had. Her people skills were awful, especially with new people- her interactions were minimal and her circle of people she was willing to truly banter with was very small. Max was probably one of the few people that could tame her with his relaxed attitude, and throw just as much shit back at Anna that he got himself.

She might have carried on, before Logan walked forwards, the team's squirrel nodding as he chuckled.
"Don't mind her, guys. She's....well, a bit awkward? Cold killer cat, and all that. I'm the cool one." Logan added on, Maxine shaking her head, the team's rabbit walked forwards and introducing herself before Logan could do any more damage.

"Speak for yourself about being awkward, Logan? Anyway, Anna's right on that one. She's our resident grenadier, and inifiltrator when we need her to help out. Incredibly talented at it, and as she says, Anna tends to work more in the shadows. I'm the team medic, whilst Logan mostly works with a laser designator and explosives. Been doing this for about two years with Max now- he spearheads what we do with a little more ranged firepower. So yeah, we're a little odd, but we're a good bunch!" She added to Python, Maxine's friendly demeanour almost at a direct contrast to Anna's sour-faced attitude, the jaguar sighing at Maxine's constant optimism. While Logan seemed to have a youthful energy that came wie, Maxine was more experienced and upbeat because she'd seen the horrible side of it. She kept upbeat, even though

Max walked in mid conversation, looking across to Python as he grabbed his M23 ISS, the M8A variant he'd picked and the rest of the webbing that went with his pilot's combat suit from the racking, keeping quiet as the others chatted. He had to admit, it waas nice that
"Hey up, Python. Hope they haven't scared you too much. I wouldn't call them harmless, the very opposite of it in fact. Don't be shocked if you see them following close to the end of your wing surfaces....so no sudden moves, yeah?" Max added, chuckling as Anna looked up to the tall lion, who took a seat on an ammo crate.

"Drop point is gonna be interesting. It's a fairly tight LZ, more close in than I'd like, but it remains our best option for where we're going." Max started, looking across to his own team, before looking back to Python.

"Just as a heads up with the kit we're using...the GDFS is a great tool, but remember, you're not a jet fighter in one. I know we've all trained with one, probably even used them a lot, but when you limber it with equipment and go through turbulent clouds into territory that might not be friendly, it's very, very different. The system glides very nicely, but only at a rate of three-to-one at maximum- so you'll fall out of the sky if you try and keep it too flat on the horizon...especially with the weight we're all carrying.

"There's a lot of stabilisation tech that the GFDS module contains, but that only works when we don't do anything stupid, for three minutes we can all do that. No rolls, for fuck's sake. Also, don't be tempted to reach for the deployment handle too soon to put us into radar view- the parachutes can effectively deploy at 750 feet with plenty of time to spare, just under radar ceiling, and minimising the time you're gonna be helpless to AA, AT and anything nasty. Remember to bloody well pull it though. Metal box or not, the ground will make you go splat. Go over your drills if you have to on malfunctions and spins with the glider. I don't know much about GEARs, but I know that system like the back of my hand....so take that from someone who's done the mistakes already." Max commented to the team, hoping they'd heed his words. He certainly listened to Silverwind, but the GFDS was his little niche, like the Corvid, a niche that the lion had been involved with heavily. He looked across to Colonel Blade, and the rest of Python, Viper and Max both ready to get moving out.

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

That's alright- I was a bit dry on mine as I wanted to do more! The next one I'm working on is a bit more interactive, a little less techy and a bit more progressive!

Me being a little silly didn't read all the descriptions for the GEARs attachments again- so I've modified Max's loadout slightly (Overwatch pod instead of ELINT). It's a little more noisy but I imagine like a radar-based battery can be silenced if turned off, right?

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max chuckled, nodding as he agreed with what had been said. Getting a DPV dropped in was a boon, so long as they could recover it of course....an issue that the lion knew the team would be able to get sorted even deep in enemy territory.

"Sounds good, Captain. That all works for me, my team is competent in using the wingpacks- they'll keep pace with a GFDS pack-equipped GEAR....depending on how hard the operator pushes. Don't ask how I know that." Max heard Anna giggling, sighing as he took the briefing notes he had and nodded back to Silverwind once more.
"I'll get us armed up first, then we'll get our work sorted out. There's also a few things I wanted to review as well...see ya later on, Captain." Max said, tailing off as he headed out with the team, aware that there was a seemingly long time to do a seemingly growing list of tasks in.

---

The armoury was teeming with Viper's activity, as they slowly but surely got their gear prepared for the operation ahead. A deep-recon mission in a civil-war torn country to find a HVT was always going to be an entertaining prosepct, so their loadouts would reflect that aspect of what they were going into. The lion, the jaguar, the squirrel and the rabbit all seemed at home with their work, Anna leaving for a moment to grab something of her own personal interest. In a couple of minutes she came back, Max casually chuckling as Anna walked back in with her wingpack, gently laying it on the main armoury table alongside the others that were there.

"I'm so fucking jealous. I have to fly a GEAR into a warzone, and you guys all get those Corvids. Seriously, I was tempted to just lose the GEAR and go on foot. Only reason I'm not is because we need the firepower." Max commented, Anna looking across it's surfaces, whistling to herself. A Viper classic indeed, the team one of the few RSDF Special Forces units that had clearnace to using such a specialist, freaky piece of kit.

The wingpack was nicknamed the "Corvid", after the crow and raven family of birds, a worthy name for the large-surface area carbon-fiber delta wing that turned an Arvaran temporarily into a gliding bird, the wing at roughly three-quarters the size of the team's resident jaguar, Anna. That made it fairly sizable, and even in spite of the carbon, weighty to the hold. It seemed to be an more advanced model compared to the primative basics that had come before it, likely benefitting from the advancement in military technology in the GEARS-specific GDFS unit, making it lighter, easier to carry and much more efficient as a wing surface as an unpowered Arvaran glider.

In the hands of Anna, it almost made her look pixie-like with it's long tail-wing that went down to Anna's lower legs, given the fact this thing was not like many would expect a standard mllitary-looking wingpack to look like. That was as the wing itself almost folded out in a butterfly mechanism into the delta-shape, making it remarkably small to carry on an operator's back when not in flight yet incredibly rigid in its individual components in fixed-flight, combining with a clever computer interface to stabilise and control rolls and movement. Like the GDFS which had a similar extraction mechanism, the Corvid was therefore a tool for low-weight, zero-detection insertions that required distance to be covered.

A parachute setup and was mounted on the spine of the wingpack that was the final handbrake-like stop for any flight, and had room for mounting other equipment in the near-hardpoints of the wings- with a specialist oxygen-feeding, tinted-visored helmet paired up with a wingpack. No weapons systems, but hey, it wasn't like the team were going to be engaging hostile air.....yet. The engineers were telling him they were still running tests on powered flight, and Anna certainly had some skin in the game on that one. Low-level, high speed infiltration with virtually no radar signal and relative ease of putting on the brakes, coupled to a wing that weighed hardly anything and took up hardly any room on an infiltrator's valuable kit-list? You just knew an infiltrator of her skills would kill, probably quite literally, for something like that. But alas, Anna wasn't daydreaming, as she checked over the flaps and winglets, as well as the condition of the parachute system attached, before flinging it on, the suit's wing opening up as she checked over one of the actuators on it.

"You bet. Holy shit, we haven't done this since what, that time we were in Galantria? Corvids are fun, but we're gonna need more than just falling out of the sky to actually last in a shithole like Arbrentia. So you've got our backs I guess." Anna commented back to the lion, Max nodding as he took his own M23 ISS and gently cleaned out the magazine well and lower reciever, nodding.

"Fair enough. We're gonna be in a real hotzone when we're in there. Tool up appropriately, guys." Max added, the team going back to quiet as he watched over at them kit up. It had to be said, the team's resident squirrel was probably the most exited he'd been in a while about using the Corvids, and somehow, Max wasn't at all shocked. What was it about squirrels that seemed to think gliding was the shit?

With one final sweep Max brought up his pad and reviewed the team's final loadouts:

Warrant Officer Maxwell Fitzroy "Actual" Bastion
"Team Lead/Marksman"
M23 ISS, Magnified Thermal Optic/Holographic
M57-2 Shotgun
M8A PDS

Corporal Anna-Marina "Spectre" Caldeira
"Grenadier"
M23 Rifle w/4x Optic/Red Dot Sight
MT-A1 Thumper MGL w/ Box Magazine
2x M8 PDS

Specialist Maxine "Hopper" Pavard
"Assault Medic/Anti-Tank"
M23 Special Operations Carbine with Holographic+Magnifier
M84 Infantry Rocket System (loaded in GEAR)
M8 PDS

Private First Class Logan "Kestrel" Vickers
"Explosives Specialist/JTAC"
M23 Battle Rifle with 4x Optic/Holographic
M8 PDS
Laser Designator
C4

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In terms of other tasks to do, once the birds were done pruning their fine wings Viper had gone their seperate ways to crack on with their own individaul tasks. Max was on his own going through his maintainance log for his Lion Rampant, Anna and Maxine were checking the landing site over and their DPV's drop-point, whilst Logan was working away on getting the team's uniforms sorted out and then had moved onto helping load up the oversized munition's into the Lion Rampant's extra gear stores. The rookie of the team had the worst jobs, but then again, everyone went through that in their induction to the team. Even Max wasn't alone in that when he first got into the 501st- it was a rite of passage, a thing that everyone did, like it or not.

Max in particular had finally gotten his manifest log, and looked up the sizable GEAR before him, with a wry grin on his face. A heavier arsenal than usual, not an ideal loadout for exactly flying in with a GFDS pack, but a necessity given how long they might be out in the field without any equipment- and the fact that he was de-facto the thing that would bring firepower for the fireteam. On their own, Viper was not a heavy unit- they had the basics but needed a GEAR to amp up their firepower when hitting a base or a precise target, especially when going into a more "hot" warzone that required more information live on the battlefield.

Information was key to have when fighting with a GEAR, especially when you were deep behind enemy lines and recon was more difficult- so the Lion Rampant in the Long Range Recon setup formed a cornerstone to that, connecting Viper Team's specialities with a GEAR unit that gave hard-hitting long range firepower and close-range 40mm fire, coupled to enhanced warzone information gathering capabilities and additional ammunition. Ordinarily if it was part of a larger unit it would rely on a different member of the team being responsible being responsible for ELINT in a wider GEARS unit, but given Max and his team could be on their own, he had to take responsibility for that side of information gathering here.

Manifest Tab

Request: Warrant Officer Bastion, Maxwell Fitzroy

GEAR Designation: XO-1514
User Name: "Lion Rampant"

All standard GEAR weaponry and features have been inspected/maintaned as per SOP

Requesitioned Loadout:
Package Designation: Long Range Recon

-30mm Sniper Rifle, Handheld/Rear Hardpoint

-Head-Mounted 2x LMG

-10x5 30mm Box Magazines, 4x5 30mm AP Box Magazines, 2x Fragmentation Grenades, 4x Smoke Grenades, Left and Right Hip Hardpoints

-Combat Claw and Ratchet for Rocket Anchor Lift, Left Forearm
-Automatic HE Grenade Launcher, Right Forearm

-Overwatch Advanced C3i Suite, Left Shoulder Hardpoint
-Rocket Anchor, Right Shoulder Hardpoint

-UAV charging and Quadrotor mount point, Back
-3x Limpet Mines stowed on Inside Left Shoulder (Shield)

Glider/Flight Deployment System

Other Stores:
-Personal Weaponry Container, Inside Rear Left Leg (Expanded)
-Basic Field Repair Kit, Inside Rear Right Leg
-Extra Equipment Container, Hip/Chest
-SERE Kit checked, inspected and mounted under cockpit seat

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Ah awesome! I'm gonna cook up something now- I'll have them finish up in the armory and then they'll get the rest of their tasks done.

EDIT: I've actually gone with a slightly longer post than I expected. I wanted to give a teeny bit of depth to a piece of kit they're using- and get them all armoury'd up!

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max and the team took a seat, noting the rest of Python and making very brief introductions across the groups. An equally exotic team it appeared to Max, made up of the cream of GEARS operators hand-picked by Silver, as he listened in on the presentation. Listening in, Max paid attention to the fact that well, they were going back into a hot zone. Good thing he had Viper then, he thought to himself, as Silver continued- relating to the situation in play in Arbrentia. A lovely country, beautiful even, scarred by war and internal conflict. A dictatorship that proclaimed absolute power, which in reality didn't extend barely beyond the scarce parts of cities it held. A hellhole, and going in there was not an ideal by Max's standards.

As for dropping in, Max liked that. The use of GFDS packs on a GEAR was always an exiting prospect, one that Max was unashamedly proud of mastery in using. He had to admit, once you had one of those on, you weren't fucking around anymore. You were going into something very serious and that came with a piece of kit that asked the same requirement of the operator. Finding this target, whoever he was, would be of critical importance and Max knew that his recon team would be instrumental in doing so. While they weren't exactly a hammer compared to the other GEAR pilots, they were good at finding information and watching, waiting and observing, something that they could complete alongside the local resistance forces. Already, the lion was thinking of how to uttilise them or what loadouts to take, just running it in his head for the moment being. Silver then finished, the lion sitting up in his seat as he chuckled.

"No pressure bailing out of an aircraft into a hellhole near the Badlands and trying to find a needle in a haystack. But then again, you have the right people onboard." Max replied, looking across to his fireteam, then to the others.

"Let me know if you have any specific requirements, Captain. I'll tool up the team for it as appropriate, as well as get a GFDS setup sorted for the Lion Rampant. We might want to think about how we'll drop the rest of the team- either with wingpacks or getting them prepped for a long-range patrol vehicle run. I'm sure you have that in mind, Sir."