S.S.D recon (private)

[Shadowbolt0]

Limiting themselves on equipment, but more importantly, ammunitions, was something Midnight couldn't approve of. While the essence of recon was not to be spotted, in her mind, it never hurt to be prepared for a worst-case scenario of being discovered. It made sense, but like many things this new unit did differently to her own, she didn't have to approve of all the changes.

She started to think, what supplies would she absolutely need? Her rifle, a smaller weapon for closer ranges, clips, knife, general survival supplies. On top of that there were a few other items she'd like but, in reality, it would be unlikely she'd be able to acquire all of them. Books. There were 3 book series she'd been reading/planning to read before her deployment, and part of her wanted to bring them. But recon would be hard enough, maybe once they'd established a base she could have troops smuggle them in for her? That would seem easiest...

 

"By doing...? Are we to be deployed soon...?"

[augercorn]

Dude took the list and laughed like father chrismas 

"were going on a mission. Real mission fake objective, practice ... our objective will be ... ... I'll figure one out. But first you!" He pointed to blackwing "I'll show you how to pack a bag. Doc do the same for midnight. " 

 

doc nodded and picked up his gear. Dude rubbed his bearded chin and said "15 minutes to pack 10 minutes to hydrate, stretch, and prep whatever else you need. Lets go!" He said walking off with the 2 bags. 

 

Dude handed blackwing his own pack back. "Ok feel that. Right now the pack is loose and everything is stuffed in there. It feels like a hundred thousand kilo's. But! When everything is packed correctly nice and tight it will feel lighter than it acually is. The tighter the lighter!"

 

dide then explained that when you pack put out the lightest items on bottem.then stack it by what's heavyest.so then when you wear the pack all the weight will be at top and you won't be fighting gravity. He then explained how to use the straps and back pad so you carry it all in your hips rather than strain your back!

 

"Now. As pointman your going to need a compass on hand at all times. And I'll give you a dagger gps. What other items do you want in the special access pouch so you can grab quickly?"

 

doc went with midnight to there room. And began to give her pretty much the same speech. But at the end he pulled out an anatomy book and opened to a skeleton and asked 

 

"based on the bones can you tell if this was a man or a woman ... trust me it's relevant."

[Shadowbolt0]

The packing style of the bag, was interesting. She remembered when she was younger to pack the things you wouldn't need at the bottom, such as tents and such, while the more needily accessable items, water, snack-based food and a spare set of clothes, at the top. But, in a regard, it did make sense. If they were packing a lot, gravity became a factorable issue to the physical pain. She was able to keep up with it all, until Doc pulled the image of a skeleton out and she frowned.

 

"I...huh...? I have no idea Doc, a-and whats it relevance? A skeletons the same ain't it?"

[augercorn]

Doc shook his head. He pointed to the hip bones 

"it's a man. Here" he holds his finger in the page and flips a few till he finds one. "Here; this is a woman ... you can tell because of the hip bones. Women have different pelvic girdles than guys" he flipped between the pages; it was apparent that the female hips were wider flaring out more. While the male seemed taller and more compact. 

 

"your strong, and I would never bet my marksman ship against yours. But when it comes to hiking with weight. your at a huge disadvantage. So we're packing as light as we can for you. Every time we put something in the bag we're going to ask "am I absolutely going to use this?"... and there are are a few tricks we can use. Like this!" He lifts up a pouch with straps "a thigh rig, we can put some gear on your legs and spread the weight out fairly nice. And we can put some stuff directly on your vest."

 

he then helped her sort thru the essential gear "if the 3 of us have computers than you probably don't need one, we can take the side plates out of your armor. You probably could use the mobility crawling around from vantage point to point anyway." He then worked with her stripping down her pack to the essentials removing about 30 pounds of gear. Which would leave a 60 pound pack without weapons. Which could fit nice and tight on her back. 

 

Doc and dude also gave a quick lesson on how when putting on and taking off your pack. Never just drop it or throw it on. As it makes a very distinct sound. 

 

He helped set the pack on her and as he synched down the straps; like magic it would feel lighter. the load went on to her stronger muscles, making it much easyer "How's that feel? Once it feels good then we tape up the slack on the straps so they don't come loose or get caught on things. Then your magazine pouches can be woven into the sides of your vest. And your side arm can be on your thighs." He said making some adjustments.

[RainbowDaringDash]

Blackwing listened intently to his teacher, doing his best to keep up. When he felt Chills pack, he felt a slight bit, but quickly straightened himself out. It had been a little heavier then he expected, but he had no real trouble carrying it. He put it down when he started explaining about the gravity situation. In all honesty, it was a little to scientific for him, but he understood it well enough. He nodded, then thought about the question.

 

"Il need the compass.... Maybe a multi tool pick lock. I can't think of much else that il need that won't either be strapped to my chest or on my belt" He replies, once again showing his reliance on more... combat open style then recon packing. He had done all of this in all of his training. In his SASR, in his Commando, and even when he went into the Black ops Spec group. But he had always hated it.

 

"Lighter on bottom, heavier on top simple enough" He said, then he started picking up items, mainly the big ones which looks heavier, to see which he would put at the bottom.

[Shadowbolt0]

Midnight was greatful for his help, without it, she didn't want to think how heavy her pack would have been. Stripped down to the essentials, she felt confident she'd be able to use it. While it did mean bringing her loved books was hugely diminished, she'd rather not break her back and have them. She did a quick self-check, and smiled. Even armed with her sniper, a side-arm, a rifle and ammunition, she should have more than enough strength to lift everything over long distance. Overall, a success.

 

"I presume it'll be selfish to bring personal items? I-I mean, like, outside of supply runs or resupplies?" She knew the answer, but had to ask anyway. Being stuck on long-term deployment, she'd never done it without something to keep her entertained. Usually it was a book, or Ember, depending on if she was busy. At the thought of Ember, Midnight smiled, before losing it just as quickly.

'I wonder if she's angry at me, if she hates me?...I hope she isn't the one he sends...'

[augercorn]

Dude nodded watching him. Leave those straps empty because if we do an amphibian mission you can store your fins." And besides a few other hints and tips he did well. He helped him adjust his pack nice and tight and smiled "great now  for your weapons. I'll get you a 1911 as soon as possible but as for your main rifle keep your magazines on your vest with your knife. if you want to out anything else on there to grab in a flash be my guest I don't care. " he said taped up the last slack for his bag. 

"All right you can make any quick personal adjustments. But for now your in charge. Get the other 2 at  the office theme at the main gate to begin the fake mission!"

 

doc looked at her at first he couldn't believe her ... then he couldn't resist. He sighed and walked over. He went to his bags and sorted thru till he found an old special Molle pouch. "Use a waterproof baggie and this. Should fit 1 book fine. But just one when we're out in the feild."

[Shadowbolt0]

The look on his face told her everything she needed to know. She knew that it was unlikely for him to say yes, after all, they were being deployed. They were going to be sent into dangerous enviroments where the end result was they could all die. Putting it that into perspective against what she was requesting, a novel that would only serve to distract her from her mission, it was obvious that it just wouldn't work. They were recon now, they had no time for extra, for luxuries.

 

So she was taken aback when Doc showed her a pounch, big enough for one of her beloved books. While it wouldn't be enough to bring all she wanted, it was more than enough to know she could bring. Now she had to pick, which she knew would be...difficult. She smiled brightly, and even hugged Doc "Oh my, t-thanks! I-I owe you, big time! I'll make it up to you, I-I promise!"

[RainbowDaringDash]

Blackwing nodded once Chill finished. He started thinking how he wanted to put all his gear. He mentally made spots where he would put his two knives, on the middle of his chest. He also made notes about the seven spots he would have his main clips, though he planned to carry a extra three in his bag, just in case. He knew that if anyone knew what he was doing, they would think he was weird, but he had found out on more the one occasion, that knowing the exact location of where his gear was had saved his life more then once. He thought ahead, and knew where he would keep his four firearms. His main rifle slung on his chest, his two M1911's on his upper leg holsters, and a M9 pistol on his ankle, for.... emergencies.  

 

He proceeded to put all his gear in its right place, with the exception of his spare clips and the M1911's, as he hadn't gotten them yet, and until Chill got them for him he would just wait. For now, he put his M9 on his right side holster. 

 

He picked up his bag, having packed it like Chill taught. He sighed, glad he might be going into the field... despite it being a fake mission. He ran up to where Chill was, needing to ask something again.

 

"I need to ask something, is their anything your hiding from my squad? About this mission, our objectives or anything? Back in Australia, when i was rolling with..... my old team, their was multiple times our old CO didn't tell us something vital. If you are hiding something, i want to know" 

His voice was a little gutsy, with a little worry in it. To many memories from missions gone bad because details were left to the chain of command. One of the reasons he hated it. He needed to know.

[augercorn]

Dude was walking away when blackwing asked him that question. He looked at him with concern and sat down on a pack gesturing for him to do the same. "Ok listen up. being a leader means sacrificing your own time for your guys. When we're out there working for real I'm going to keep you up to date, and aware of what's going on. It's my job as team leader to take care of you guys. ... you guys are my weapons; and you wouldn't stuff a barrel in the dirt and expect it to work right?"  He shrugged understanding why he may ask him that question.

"Now I do like to train hard and joke. But only if it's in a safe environment where we up guys can learn something." He stood up and nodded "that goes both ways just so you know. Now any questions?"

 

doc wrapped his arm around midnight. And said "hey let's Finish  getting ready." Doc pulled out a small Med bag with a sling and said "I'm just going to bring this rather than a whole mother backpack." He said as he sat down to put his ruck on "Ok let's go!" He was ready. With a full combat load!

[RainbowDaringDash]

Blackwing sat down as gestured, listening to what he had to say. After he finished, Blackwing eased off, he slumped his shoulders and just relaxed. He was satisfied with that, he had a good feeling that he would keep to his word, if anything came up he would tell them. Black nodded at the end, and answered back with a surprisingly calm voice.

 

"No questions Chill, you have my trust. I trust you'll do your best to keep them safe, just like i do. They are insanely capable soldiers..... but as a leader you take responsibility for their actions. Your doing that for us now, so il work with you, not against you. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask. Il meet you at the main gate, i just want to stop by the armory first" He replied, giving Chill a small smile. Despite his normal attitude, he actually respected chill, so he let his guard down a bit. He stood up, picking up his back and putting it on. It was heavy, and he hadn't even put ammo or the spare weapon he wanted to bring with it yet and started walking towards the door.

[Shadowbolt0]

With the assistance of Doc, Midnight finished properly packing her bag. All she was lacking was her novel, and while the Sniper had no idea which book she'd bring, it was a battle for another day. Carefully putting her bag on, she followed Doc out back to the team room. Returning to the room, Dude would be able to see it. Her mood and entire attitude had shifted into a more positive one than when she'd snapped at him before.

[augercorn]

Dude had just talked to the c.o they had an objective for there training mission. He passed by the office and saw midnight ... not scowling. It seemed his team's morale made a complete 180! Doc stopped by him and softly asked "ready?" Dude shook his head "no wait for blackwing and he will pass word." He walked off smiling a little jig in his step. Doc smiles "well he's in a good mood."he walked into the office and set his pack down. "Ok before every mission we do a map study and try to learn about the terrain. I don't think we're going far from promenade so probably the just the surrounding area" he looked at it "huh I didn't know we were that close to the boarder. And there another base not too far from here."

[Shadowbolt0]

Midnight slowly put her pack down, but instead of joining them looking at the map, the young sniper instead sat herself down on the couch after fetching herself a cup of water. She drank slowly, closing her eyes tightly at several moment before hiding her eyes with her left hand. Her eyes were killing her, and not only that, a headache had started to kick in. She knew half the issue were her eyes, she'd always predicted her eyesight would weaken, but she suspected she was years off requiring glasses to operate. No, she suspected it was mostly just her headache that was causing her discomfort.

[RainbowDaringDash]

Blackwing went straight to the armory, going to the lockers. He grabbed all the clips he could use, around 8 clip9 for his rifle, 5 to hang on his vest, three spares in his bag, and one loaded in his gun. He grabbed two pistols, duel MK23's, with silencers detached, and put them in his leg holsters, grabbing 5 clips, cliping two spares on his belt, the rest in his bag. After that, he grabbed the grenade launcher that he had gotten. He didn't pack spare ammo for it, instead loading it with two smoke rounds, the rest being explosive. 

Despite this just being.... training, he was taking this seriously. 

 

He then went to find his team, finding them studying a map. He walked over to them.

"Time to go Doc, Midnight. Were heading out on a 'fake' mission, as training... " He said to them, then added "Grab your stuff were heading for the gate"

[Shadowbolt0]

Eventually, despite her headache, Midnight stood. She would just have to get over it, she couldn't make them wait any longer because of something as small as a headache. She looked up at Blackwing, a fake mission sounded boring and the sniper had to stop herself from scowling.

"Very well, I'll gather my equipment" She answered, grabbing her beloved 50 cal, several clips, before placing her bag on her back. "I'm ready"

[augercorn]

Doc took in the map. He noticed midnight was on the couch. Not doing well, he was about to ask her what's wrong. Then blackwing came in. 

"At the gate, got it!" He putnhisnack back in and walked out with them. 

 

As they walked he dove dove into his Med pouch and pulled out some Motrin for midnight "here ... 800 milligrams. Keeps ponies alive." 

 

When they got to the gate doc was about to question If blackwing would be comfortable with all those weapons. But then dude came. The phrase "clothes make the man" came to doc's mind. To him he always looked like an old hippie. But he came in wearing all custom gear. He wore a vest tailored to him and a combat belt which held everything nearly at his hips. His giant wildly magnum. Was snug on his thigh. And doc kind of began drooling at the knife he had across from it. And underneath it all was an olive drab jumpsuit. He wasn't a silly old hippie anymore; but a fearsome commando!

 

"ok boys and girls the mission is simple. Our grunts, are out there somewhere doing exercises. Our mission is to find and report on them. They won't be far from promanade but like a real mission they won't know we're coming ... unless we suck. Now blackwing , midnight let's do some good recon!" He pulled out a map. And turned to show them. From the main gate of the base the road branched 4 ways. Two up a mountain, on of which went thru the bourder. 1 branches off to a swamp and river. Another was a main road leading to the interstate. 

 

"Based off what I've taught you all so far and what you know about infantry. Where do you think we should start looking? ... you be quiet doc!"

[Shadowbolt0]

Midnight raised an eyebrow seeing Dudes, unique, uniform. However, she opted against any comments. After all, she had no reason to talk about his clothing. Wear whatever you want, it wasn't her place to pass judgement on them.

 

She took the medication Doc offered her, giving him a quiet thanks as her headache, while there, started to clear up as the map was brought out. So their mission was simply a hide-and-seek operation? Could be worse, of course, could be better. She looked at the map, and smiled. She knew where she wanted to go.

"I think we should start looking in the mountains. Large units of troops, mountains are a pain to deal with, especially rocky terrain. As a small team, we should be able to scout up there and locate them. However, if they're not on the mountain, it'll give us a wide area to try and locate them from above"

[RainbowDaringDash]

As Blackwing started to move, he noticed how... well, noisy he was. it wasn't bad, but it was bad enough that it could give him away, and it was because of the grenade launcher. He knew he had to bring it though, because in the field, if they were setting up a sort of.. supply spot, well he could leave it their for if he needed it. He adjusted it so that it was more hooked and secured, and as he walked he felt the noise go down a little. Then Chill walked out, fully customized. He had to admit, he hadn't thought he would have had this cool tac gear, but he had suspected. Special forces don't normally come unprepared.... Normally. 

 

Reporting on grunts? That seemed easy enough. In theory, he was still having trouble adjusting to this whole thing. 

"Based on the current situation, they would be on the mountain road doing a jog. I believe we should head up the mountain, and like Midnight said, if their not up their we can use the height to scope out and find them"

[augercorn]

Dude smiles and nods "very good both of you! Very good. Now for usually we want to be sneaky and stay off the roads but for situwations like this we can follow them. Keep your eyes open for target-indicators!" 

Doc adds "target indicator is just any type of clue you might find. Could be anything that shows your targets were here, trash, tracks, shell casings, anything!" 

 

Dude nods. Ok so if we're going to the mountains we need to assume the enemy is higher than us, which is bad. High ground always makes fighting easyer. We need to avoid spots on the road where they can see us from above and be extra carful not to get compromised/caught." 

 

Doc nods and looks at the map. "Blackwing; it looks can cut  spots of the road thrunthe jungle ... it will suck but we won't be spotted from above." 

 

Dude nods "ok let's try this out for real. Blackwing take point, then doc, then midnight. I'll follow up on the back. Ready?"

 

"swift, silent, deadly!" Doc whispers 

[Shadowbolt0]

Orders were simple, locate recruits and avoid being spotted. Shouldn't be too hard. Even moving uphill the recruits wouldn't be looking for them, making them harder to detect.

"Very well, let us deploy" she said simply, wanting to get this fake mission up and done with. While she did understand, and could respect, the reason behind it, Midnight hated simulations like this. She was trained to point her rifle at someone, usually over a long distance, and pull the trigger. That's what she was good at, that's why she was a Devil.

[RainbowDaringDash]

He couldn't help but let out a small sigh as he flipped his rifle onto safety. They were just scouting out friendlies, so he wouldn't need to actually shoot anyone... then he remembered something about it.

 

"If were seen will they shoot? They don't know where coming" He asks as they started heading out.

 

(Sorry for just how sh1t this is...)

[augercorn]

They stack up following Blackwing. Dude is slightly out of line observing them. He smiles seeing that they are starting to move well. "Increase dispersion; 5 meters between each of us; the grunts are armed with sim rounds. So it will look real but only hurt if we get shot." Doc follows as slack man looking behind him at midnight and dude. He says "blackwing remember as point man you need to be observant up front and focus on the route. We will watch the sides. Me on the right and midnight can take the left. Speaking of which midnight I know your not used to movements like this. Just pay attention, make sure you keep up and check behind us every now and then."

 

dude nods "you both got sharp senses, Nows the time to use them."

 

the road was a simple dirt one. It had 4 sets of tire tracks on both sides. And the jungle around it was thick. It would be hard to crawl on and off the road. The vegetation was mostly thorny berry plants. Along the road was a few wet brown spots in the dirt. That smelled like mint.

 

"by the way I heard you guys had some trouble planning missions before we met?" Dude asked from the back of the line." Referring to the rescue 

[RainbowDaringDash]

As they all stacked behind Blackwing, he switched mindsets. He was back in the front, ready to protect those close to him. He raised his rifle, keeping it straight as they moved. He kept his eyes on the road, listening to any and all sound. He followed the route, sticking beside the road, following the trail of the truck tracks. They had taken a transport, lucky buggers. They had to walk!!! 

 

He kept focused, right up until he heard Chill ask about the rescue. He froze for a moment, before shaking his head and continuing to walk, heading towards the jungle they were going to use.

 

"They had no issues, i did, its why you were called in"

[Shadowbolt0]

Midnight set herself into position at the back armed with her sniper. After all, where else would she be? She enjoyed it in a way, even if she wasn't entirely sold on the huge difference in style.

Of course, that's when the rescue mission got mentioned. She shook her head. She'd had a mini-breakdown during the planning phase, snapped under pressure of having everyones lives on her shoulders. She hated that level of responsibility, with everyone looking at her expecting her to come up with everything. She was no leader, a follower, that's what she was trained to do. Follow her orders and kill. She could have said anything, but instead, went silent. After all, Blackwing was officially in charge of that op, it was his responsibility to bear.