Scouting Mission (Started 8/30/2021)

`Yesterday, before things started shutting down in anticipation of the Hurricane, an airship took off from the aerodrome lacking any kind of insignia. It's colors were muted, even desert-oriented if one looked at it that way. It left without any kind of fanfare or hoorah, just the crew that had boarded it.

"Captain, you are cleared to execute the mission. Do you understand your orders?" A voice crackled through the radio in the cockpit/bridge, and a tall, stoic griffon hit the mic button and nodded. "Affirmative, Bravo Six. We will maintain radio silence on all Company frequencies except your own personal one and our own. All transmissions will be encrypted. Once we leave Equestrian airspace, we're going dark on all comms but those."

"Good." The voice answers back. "Everyone here is focusing on the changeling crisis and the Hurricane. Maintaining the check-in schedule is of utmost priority. If even one is missed, I will assume something has gone wrong. You won't have any other reinforcements able to arrive quickly , which is why you'll have a larger team with you than normal. It will be split into two main groups and three subgroups. HQ for this mission will be the ship itself, maintain altitude at the designated FL and hold position. We'll deploy in teams of four."

"Yes, sir. I will check in with you - and only you - as scheduled."

"And Captain?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Be careful. We don't want another Pon Lookout on our hands, and these changelings are dangerous. Make no mistake, I'm sending you into the frying pan... The cave system is their territory. They'll have a massive advantage. Your team is to exercise extreme caution around any cave entrances and make their own calls as the circumstances dictate." The voice says reluctantly.

The griffon's expression darkened as he remembered the events of that day. "We've taken precautions against that, sir. I think we'll be fine."`
---
`Sometime later, the airship would arrive in Maretania as scheduled. Captain Hawk and the others of the group were given copies of the frankly unimpressive map that had been made with the understanding that it was massively incomplete and distances were not at all precise. Stray would delve into the archives further to search for any other records that might provide more context for the area, as well as communicate to them his memories of the place to the best of his ability. The intel was certainly not up to usual snuff, but they had to work with what was available.`

`They would try to locate the Old Forward Base, navigating the desert and whatever weather greeted them as best they could using the map's limited landmarks and outline of topagraphy and any coordinates that may have been able to be provided...`

`Assuming they were able to find it, the airship would ascend up to an altitude out of range of most magic and weaponry and pegasi would attempt to disguise it behind cloud cover, ideally utilizing any natural cloud formations in the area and putting them together. If the Forward Base was now well within the dust storm, the ship would instead post up outside the edge of the storm on the southern side where the rockeyness starts (far enough away not to experience significant turbulence).

`At this point, they would disembark three teams of 4 ponies each, two pegasi and two unicorns. Into the dust storm they went with enchanted compasses, crystal enchanted radios, their standard issue weapons and kit with desert camo, extra healing potions and scrolls, and extra-strength flares for emergencies. Stray would try to have procured or quickly developed for the pegasi a potion that shields against the wind of a dust storm to hopefully give them some kind of ability to fly in emergencies, and enchanted goggles for all of them that would allow them to see through the dust storm for as far a distance as GM allows.`

`Their objective was to scout out the area surrounding the Hive... The three teams of 4 would each split east, west, and central, at first surveying the outmost area of the big rocky diameter surrounding the Hive. They would be provided with cameras to take pictures and record distances to help with making a better, more comprehensive map... assuming they'd even be able to get any pictures with the storm. Otherwise they would have to take it slow and survey each little piece of observable land as they moved through the storm. They would use the terrain to keep themselves concealed and shielded from the dust storm as much as they could, while exercising EXTREME caution near any cave entrances... Hawk and Stray would have given them quite a bit of flexibility in their method of scouting out the different cave entrances. This part of the mission might take tedious time, but once they performed this task in their respective sectors, they would quickly regroup and head back to the ship, and the operation would conclude with a trip back to Outer Hayven.`

`At least... that's the plan. Besides the three teams of 4 on the ground, another 24 of CC remain on the airship as support and maintaining a hub of communications.`