General Vicente Rinehart was a simple man, a man who often called it as it was, a man who liked to see the world in black and white. But by no means was General Rinehart an uneducated man. He had gone through the West Point at the top of his class, he understood everything from advanced mathematics to human psychology and he hadn't become the commanding officer of Task Force Aegis by his good looks alone. So from within the command center of the military space station Independence, surrounded by dozens of computers and members of his headquarters staff, he was understood what it meant when reports of a sudden Polish uprising detailed rebel forces operating what was clearly Russian-supplied mechs, albeit outdated ones, began to stream in. And understandably, Rinehart was upset.
"Those motherfuckers," Vicente Rinehart squinted his eyes at one of the screens that played a video of Polish rebels crushing loyalist forces from the Varsovian Armoured Brigade, "They've done it now!" He then growled before grabbing a hold of a passing desk jockey, "Bring everyone up to speed, get them ready to deploy. I wanted to have boots on the ground yesterday."
"Everyone s-sir?" The soldier, a First Lieutenant from the United States Air Force, gulped.
"Everyone!" The General bellowed before throwing the man aside. Moments later, while the announcement was broadcasted through the station intercom for Task Force Aegis to scramble and make preparations to deploy, a Polish field operative was displayed on one of the command center's monitors. The operative, a member of the elite Operational Maneuver Response Group (GROM), updated Rinehart on the current state of affairs.
"They took us totally by surprise, General. More than a few high ranking members of our military just defected to the other side, taking with them plenty of good men. What's left of the loyalist forces are either pulling back towards the west or are regrouping at the capital, myself included. But General I've seen these mechs in action. We don't stand a chance unless NATO-" The operative, before he could finish his sentence, was cut off by Rinehart.
"NATO's still 'accessing' the situation, son. How long will your people be able to hold out at Warsaw?" Task Force Aegis' commander grunted.
"Not long, sir." The operator replied.
"Understood. I'll get back to you." The General nodded to one of his people and ended the conversation with the man. Once this was done, Rinehart weighed in his options, eventually deciding that before anything he needed eyes on the situation. Local assets in the area weren't equipped to transmit encoded messages back to the station, nor had they been able to give him any solid intelligence to act on. How many forces would NATO be fighting against if they sent in the troops? How well equipped were they? Were they all professional soldiers who had deserted from the Army or were there some militia assisting the rebel army? And who was to say the rebels consisted only of Polish separatists? Who's to say that there weren't some Russians or Iranians in the mix? To get a better grip on the full picture, and to start laying the foundation of any operation that would include the deployment of the Task Force, General Rinehart pulled aside another member of his headquarters staff.
"Gather up some recon specialists, and by tomorrow morning, I want them on the ground and getting me some god damn answers."
