The infantry squad Glen borrowed for the hostage rescue operation is sprawled across the small briefing room’s back two rows. The usual grunt bullshitting is doing a poor job of masking a bit of unease about why they’re here. Glen closes the door, using a bit more force than is strictly necessary. The sound is a guillotine for the conversations. All eyes turn to him.

Of the privileges that being a lancer brings, Glen’s most favored is a general freedom from uniform regulations. For most occasions, he can get away with a sanitized jumpsuit, or even civilian attire when he’s interfacing with the diplomatic side of the mission or exercising his other skill set. The other people in the room are (for the next few minutes) UN regular forces, though, so his attire for the day is something he rarely prints: an undress uniform. The Naval Black is a bit too obvious for his liking, but it does make the rank tabs evident. It has a similar effect for the Mechanized Chassis qualification badge with the crossed lances – and the Fleet Reconnaissance badge pinned directly above it. As he turns to face the audience, a hushed ohshit indicates that at least one of the grunts is putting some of the pieces together.

Glen smiles thinly as he steps to the podium. “Good morning. The fact that you’re here indicates you are all capable of reading the orders assigning you to Support Activity 1132. Some of you are likely questioning what you did to get assigned to facility maintenance and custodial functions. On the other hand,” he glances at a particularly furtive trooper, “some of you may be wondering which of your indiscretions led you to this fate.

“On either hand, you may be relieved to learn that there is no Support Activity 1132, and those orders are, in fact, bullshit.” And wasn’t that a fun conversation with the commander of the 501st and his seniormost NCO.

“Your actual assignment is a continuation of something that some of you have already been involved in. You’ll be providing intelligence and operations support to this mission’s lancer elements. For security, we’ll be working outside normal chains of command and reporting channels. Welcome to Task Group Brigand…”

---

Task Group Brigand (military-focused organization [Lancer core rules, p. 55])

Efficiency +2

Influence +1

Red Cell (formerly 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, B Company, 501st Exploratory Guard Battalion):

• Command Element/Red 1
  • Sergeant Merrell Tomov
  • Senior Trooper Kennedy St. Martin (comms/sensors/drones)
  • Trooper Valentina Naggia (designated marksman)
• Maneuver Element/Red 2 (rifle team)
  • Senior Trooper Nasimiyu Quirke
  • Trooper Laetitia Woodward
  • Trooper Zanokuhle Sharma
  • Trooper Lugo Jekyll
• Support Element/Red 3 (automatic weapons or heavy launcher team, as needed)
  • Corporal Angela Ventimiglia
  • Trooper Malachi Apostolov
  • Trooper Xochquetzal Sabbadin

Additional cells to be established based on mission needs and resource availability.