Two months have passed since your encounter in Onaping Falls. The Lazlo Militia sent in an entire company to aid in your search for the Onaping Falls refugees. For two weeks you searched with little incident. During the last few days you don’t find any more refugees and command declares the search and rescue mission closed. The experts at the base have speculated that since, according to Lancaster, the townspeople were dead and then sustained by the Old One they, and any newcomers that were “killed” after arriving into Onaping Falls, ceased to exist once the Old One was… well whatever it was that happened to it. They’re still debating the details on what exactly that failsafe device did. Unfortunately no sign of Sunshine, Lady Nina, Simon Steelhelm or The White was ever found.
     After that you spend the next six weeks helping with the set up of the new forward operating base, Aegis II. Mostly that means patrolling the perimeter and the outlying areas to make sure nothing nasty surprises the base. Other people are busy erecting the prefabricated buildings, tents, wall, etc.
     During this time you say goodbye to two other personnel. Noren returns to his squad now that he’s been freed from Onaping Falls. Ayashe Rainmaker had a vision related to her home village and her people. She doesn’t tell you the details, but she does say she needs to return home. She formally requested to be released from the militia and a few days later her request is granted. So off she went.
     As for the rest of you, you eventually are given great news. After you and the Onaping Falls survivors were debriefed and the information reviewed, it has been determined that you’ll each be rewarded with a medal and a promotion. Meina to chief warrant officer 2, Shawn to sergeant first class, Zato to staff sergeant, James and Ariella both to specialist. Congratulations. Before you ask, these promotions do not impact how much money you made over the past two months as the award and promotion ceremony was held the day before Mission 5 starts.
     Now on to the mission.
     On the morning of your recon squad and three others are summoned into a large tent along with their respective APC crews. The briefing will be conducted by Eric Ferma, a civilian Xiticix expert and by Lieutenant Curtiss, your platoon leader. A man you’ve seen so infrequently that it prompts Scott Blood to comment, “We have a platoon leader? When the hell did this start?”
     In game you have a little bit of time before the briefing begins. You may post any actions before the briefing takes place. Also, just like last time you have until this briefing concludes to make any equipment requests. Once this briefing is over the window to ask for anything is closed.

     I reply to Scott, “Yeah, of course. Remember when we… No, he wasn’t there. But when we… No, he wasn’t there for that mission either, but he was… No, not that mission either. You’re right. Since when did we have that lieutenant?”

Corporal Roberto Dominguez Rivera, more commonly known as Rob, of the Lazlo Militia, was ‘saddle sore’. Less than 24 hours ago, he had been assigned to ‘Recon Squad 125’, given minimal information about his new unit and told the logpac (logistical package) for its current FOB (Forward Operating Base), FOB Aegis II, would be SPing (Starting Point) soon and he had better be on it.

Unexpected Fragos (Fragmentary Orders) were nothing new to Rob. As a member of the E4 Mafia, not to mention a generational member of the LM, he knew stuff like this just happened. So he’d saluted his platoon leader, packed his ‘I’m going to be in the field for who knows how long’ bag, loaded it on his hovercycle and took his position in the convoy.

Thankfully the trip out to FOB Aegis II had been uneventful. In fact they had made good time but it had still been a long ride and while he loved his NG-424 Hornet, it was built for speed, not comfort. He had just passed the gates of the FOB and was taking in its partially completed appearance, when a PFC came running up to him to inform him that he was needed in the TOC (Tactical Operations Center), his new CO was giving a briefing to the squad on their next mission, time now.

“Frack me,” Rob muttered as he took off his helmet and racked it on his hovercycle. “I was hoping for a chance to settle in first, maybe get cleaned up before meeting the CO but oh well. Which one is the TOC?” “I’ll take you there corporal,” the young woman says and then leads the way, thru the entrance control point. Not seeing a clearing barrel, Rob shrugs and steps into the TOC, glancing around at the assembled people before selecting an unoccupied piece of ground to stand on and hoping that he hasn’t missed too much.

Judging by the looks of things, him reporting in wearing his ride armor, his sidearm strapped to his thigh in its drop-down holster, didn’t seem too out of place. “Small favors,” he thought to himself.


OOC
I don't know how much Army jargon and terms everyone is familiar with so I added subtitles. If that is good, bad or indifferent, please let me know so I can adjust fire as needed

James arrives, Ariella flitting about him as almost always.  He carries a tray of food and a couple of soda bottles.  As they join the others, he opens the bottles and begins to eat.  Ariella flits in periodically to steal bits from the tray.  James growls playfully in response, which illicts tiny musical giggles from the fae.
At the mention of the platoon leader, James gives a chuckle.  He's better at being sneaky than we are, he comments quietly.

(No requisitions yet as we don't know what we're in for, but Meina will offer to return the undead-hunting kit loaned out earlier, minus the bits that have been used.)

"Yeah, I know commissioned officers don't always go on the front lines and he probably has more units than just us to handle, but still, I don't actually recall seeing him too often even around the base. Well, there's a first for everything I guess. Maybe this means we have an even more important job ahead of us..."

Meina then does her best attempt at cracking wise, a little joke for the team.

"After all, you don't just promote people as a reward for doing well, you do it as an enticement before you send them off on something even more dangerous. Anybody get gifted shiny new boots and fresh tobacco lately?"

     At 0800 the lieutenant announces, “Okay, everyone. Quiet down and let’s get this briefing started.” Once everyone is settled Lieutenant Curtiss says, “Morning everyone. Get comfortable. We’re going to be here a while. We’re going in to neutralize the Duluth Hive. It’s going to be a three stage operation and we’re about to go over Stage One in detail. Dr. Ferma, would you like to start?”
     Ferma thanks the lieutenant and then goes to a smartboard that’s on a stand towards the back of the tent. He taps it and a map of the area is displayed. Both the Duluth Hive and Aegis II’s locations are marked. Aegis II is to the northeast of the hive.
     Ferma says, “We’re here and the hive is there. And this is the hive’s territory.” Ferma taps the smartboard and the black dot representing the hive is engulfed by a red blob on the map. A good portion of the blob runs along the northwest coast of Lake Superior. The black dot is near the center of the blob. Aegis II is outside the blob. “The queens and the hatcheries are mark by that black dot. Here’s a quick rundown on Xitixic Expansion 101. You start off with a hive. When there’s enough Xitixic to expand their territory they start by sending out teams of warriors and workers to build outposts. Once the outposts are established the Xitixic start expanding them back towards the hive while the hive starts expanding towards them. After awhile the hive sends more warriors and workers to the outposts and eventually the outposts are more like bases. Eventually the hive connects up with the bases, but before that happens they send out more teams to establish new outposts. And the cycle repeats itself until the hive has all the territory it can get. Which means that surrounding the hive proper is a ring of bases and another ring of outposts.”
     Ferma taps the smartboard again. A ring of several yellow circles surrounds the red blob while another ring of green dots surrounds them.
     “In Stage One we’re targeting the outposts.”

     ((It doesn’t bother me if you want to use Army jargon as long as you continue to include the translations into layman’s terms.))

Rob listened to the briefing though he couldn't help but hear some of the sidebar chatter. As he hadn't been introduced to literally anyone, and was in the middle of a briefing, he knew now wasn't the time for him to strike up conversations.

He was by no means an expert on the Xiticix but he knew the basics; they were hyper territorial humanoid bugs, hell bent on terraforming the entire planet into a giant hive. Based on that limited understanding, and what he had heard so far, he wondered if the outposts were a feint, meant to draw a response away from the main hive.

     The lieutenant takes over for a moment.
     “Through aerial reconnaissance, astral projection and many, many small teams of wilderness scouts we have determined the path of least resistance to the heart of the hive.”
     LT Curtiss taps the smartboard and a line appears. It starts at the black dot at the center of the hive but does not go to Aegis II. It ends towards the west of the base.
     “You’ll notice that the path doesn’t start at our base. There are two reasons for that. The first is that by the time the higher ups finished analyzing the intelligence we were more than halfway done setting up the base. The second is that even if they finished their analysis sooner we’d probably still set up here. I’m not going to go into all of the details, but based on a lot of different criteria, this was the best place to set up. Not perfect, but the best we were going to find.”
     The lieutenant taps the smartboard and several outposts and bases near the line are X-ed out.
     “Anyway, we’re not going to eliminate every base or outpost. Just the ones too close to this path. When we go into the hive we don’t need more Xitixic behind us cutting off our path back out.”
     Ferma takes back over.
     “The Xitixic will notice and respond to the loss of their outposts and bases. Their response to the loss of an outpost does take longer than the loss of a base. We’re not sure if it’s because they’re farther away from the hive, because they’re considered less important than the bases, or a little bit of column A and B. It takes between one to four weeks for the Xitixic to respond to the outpost’s destruction. The Xitixic will respond to a base’s destruction typically in a day or two. Five at most.”
     LT Curtiss says, “Which means once we start the mission the clock starts ticking. After we leave the base today we’re not coming back here until the Duluth mission is finished, one way or the other.”

Rob nodded his head along with the briefing. "So the attack on the outposts aren't meant to draw the bugs away from the hive for a strike on it but as route clearing," He thinks to himself.

He raises his hand for attention and if acknowledged says, "Corporal Rivera Sir, just arrived. So our mission is to be an RCP and not the assault force? (Route Clearing Package)"

     The lieutenant replies, “I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but Stages One and Two are for the purpose of clearing the route to the hive. Stage Three is when we enter the hive and neutralize it.”

A small grin appears on Rob's face at the lieutenants response. "Pulling double duty, sweet. I wonder just what kind of unit I've been assigned to," He wonders to himself. "I'm thinking it's a 'squad' on paper only. Did I just get quiet drafted into special forces?"

      The lieutenant continues, “This will be our target.” He taps the board and one of the outposts is highlighted in a red circle. Ferma starts handing out computer tablets to the platoon members. Not everyone gets a tablet. About every third so you’re going to have to share. The lieutenant taps the board and up pops a diagram of a Xitixic tower. The caption over the tower reads “D-015.” The lieutenant taps the board again and a “floor plan” of the tower comes up.
     “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. We’re going to hit the tower at night when most of them will be sleeping. We will still have to be careful as they do keep a night watch to guard the outpost when it’s most vulnerable. But that’s also the time that most of the warriors and all of the workers will be inside the outpost. We reach the outpost and use a fusion block at its base to open a hole in. Squads 120, 125 and 130 will enter while Squad 135 stays outside to cover the exit. Tiny, in particular will guard the new entrance.”
     Scott asks, “Who’s Tiny?”
     “That Titan Juicer sitting behind you.”
     When you turn around to look you see a human male Titan Juicer sitting on a folding chair much too small for him. He waves to the platoon and says hello.
     “The hell!? How did we not see you before? Did someone cast an invisibility spell on you or are you part cat?”