One Memorable Journey Pg.2
#2 of One Memorable Journey
After the officer finished speaking the general spoke again. "This mission is on a need to know basis. You two and your squad members are all that can know of this. An M7 Falcon pilot has been assigned to be transport for this mission and in the case you come across hostile units I am authorizing lethal force. You should avoid engagements as best you can though and stick to being hidden. This is lab-team transport and recon, that's all. dismissed."
Both Alex and Jackie stood and gave a salute before exiting the room, glancing at each other after the door closed behind them. "Your squad still full of assholes Jackie?" Alex commented as they went down the hall, moving into the main hall.
"So angry. mad that my squad's better?" He retorted as they started to head toward the base's north wing, Alex pulling her phone out of a pocket and sending a message to her squad. "What? Squad so slow you need to give 'em this much warning?"
"your squad isn't better. My squad can put your squad on the ground and run laps around them any day." she stated as they got to the start of the north wing, Alex going left to her team's barracks as Jackie went right to his team's. Alex opened the door to her team's barracks to see her squad already set to get their gear and go, Alex herself quickly doing what preparations she had before they got moving. Once she went out the door her squad followed close after locking up their area, leaving the north wing and heading to the armory to get geared up. Alex started to talk to her squad as they got equipped. "What I read say's the terrain is mostly rough, lots of rock outcroppings with a fair bit of dripping vine trees scattered about. we' can make do with our normal gear but get an active camo unit each. We are to stay hidden and if hostiles are sighted avoid engaging if at all possible."
As Alex spoke an armory security officer was unlocking the special operations gear including active camo devices, to the surprise of the whole squad. "Pretty rare that we get to use these things. must be a special occasion." Said one squad member who was a somewhat tall female badger, the name Julie printed in small lettering on the shoulder of her shirt. .
"Yeah. If Spencer had one of these he'd probably sneak into some pretty questionable places." Commented a male otter standing next to the badger, their shoulder bearing the name Patrick.
"didn't he get discharged for doing something like that?" The squad member who spoke this time was a male zebra about average in height..
"Disorderly conduct and smuggling drugs into the barracks, now hush it Nolan. You know we shouldn't be gossiping, especially before a mission." Alex said in a firm tone as they finished gearing up, a short snow leopard that was the last squad member chuckling at his squad-mate getting hushed. "You too Robert." As they were leaving the armory Jackie and his squad were just getting there, Jackie glaring at her and her squad started on their way to the hangar. They got to the hangar of the base where there were multiple hovercraft as well as a few small spacecraft landing and taking off at smaller landing pads, at one of the large pads however sat a fairly large shuttle which was better armed than most of the shuttles there and was painted pitch black.
"wait... don't tell me we're riding in an M7 on this one." Her squad member named Robert said as they saw it.
"You guessed it right. We get a stealth assault transport on this mission." Alex replied as she saw a few scientists there already, getting some help loading up their equipment.
"Oh wow, we get to sit in with the lazy ones." Said a voice behind them. It was a member of Jackie's squad as they arrived. Jackie's squad was all male and consisted of two cheetahs, a black panther, a lion and Jackie himself. They jogged past and went up into the shuttle, buckling in as Alex and her squad came in and got settled. Everyone did their last checks to make sure everyone and everything was secure as the shuttle started up.
"pre-flight checks cleared, engines are good, weapons systems active. Owl one taking off from pad eight." the pilot said over the comms line, the shuttle slowly lifting off the metal of the landing pad and turning to fly out of the hangar. Through reinforced blast-resistant windows the ground could be seen getting farther and farther, soon the shuttle shaking a bit as it started to exit the planet's orbit.
Both squads made silent wishes of good luck for the mission, the two squads having a mutual dislike for the other though never wanting any mission to turn sour and end up in a bad way.