Short circuit (Open)

Sam had never thought he'd find himself back in this place again, and certainly not like this. He'd been a young man when his home country had fallen into chaos and nuclear apocalypse, he'd survived it all somehow and managed to get out...only to find himself here again.

The man was pushing the end of middle age, strongly build, scarred, grizzled short dark hair and beard. He looked like a man to be taken seriously, he always had been and he was even more so now...he supposed there was some part of him that was begrudgingly grateful to the pair of literal psychopaths that had found him and saved him from a painful death as all those years of radiation finally caught up to him. He supposed he should be grateful for the renewed, almost above-human levels of strength and vigor their little test program had given him. But mostly he just wanted another shot at snapping the little Russian's neck. He had to give him that much, the man had been smart and not turned his back on Sam more than once. He also didn't know what their end-game was, and the part he was supposed to play in it, and that worried him. They'd sent him back to Australia to scout out the new Omnic activity, to report back what he found there, or anyone else he encountered. He'd thought briefly of going to ground, he knew this country better than most, but the pair weren't idiots and he doubted he was out here untracked, and they knew things about those close to him as well. Of course they did, clever bastards. So he played along...for now...

The well armed and well geared man had picked out a ridge to observe everything from, watching the activity he could pick up on. The arrival of hoverships had been a surprise though, no official markings on them to give away who they claimed loyalty to, nothing that gave away their purpose here. He hunkered further down, watching them through binoculars, still and patient for as long as it took until he felt he knew all he could, or otherwise felt it time to move in closer, or further away.

I haven't wore this gear in a long time. thought Fury while doing an equipment check on himself. The style of his signature combat outfit gives off a retro aspect for not having high tech. cybernetics that helps his aiming, strength, and agility. His sage flak jacket did give some armor around his chest and stomach. The jacket isn't zipped up and laced up yet, showing off he is wearing a sage tank top under the jacket. This is what he's used to, not relying on other fancy equipment to spoon feed his skills. He just wants to rely on himself and it has help so far for him to be alive to this day. Instinct is what he needs for survival.

A VTOL aircraft transportation flies over the pacific towards the apocalyptic outback. Their heading towards the area where they were told to group up at for this operation. Fury is the only soldier in the hull, sitting in one of the seats. He pulls out a stick of eye black and pops the cap open that exposes the black painted tip. The eye black smears under his eyes that helps reduce the glare of the sunlight when in battle. It sorta drips down after being painted on his face. He picks up his rifle off the ground that was leaning against a seat and lays it in his lap. "The Grinder" sits right next to him in the other seat already having a belt of bullets in the ammunition slot. Outside of the window next to him, he can see they were approaching the landing platform.

Fury disconnects his seat belt and gets up as they were slowly landing. He grabs his LMG and hooks it to his back with the shoulder strap that was on the weapon and holds his assault rifle in a lower position with the barrel pointing towards the ground. The VTOL makes a big clunk with the landing gear touching the ground. Soon after, the large cargo door begins to unlock and open letting in the sunlight that flooded the dark hull. He sees the Egyptian soldier woman standing near the platform edge waiting for others. Her back was facing towards him as he walks out of the ship, waiting for more to come.

A tiltrotor dropship was flying over the nuclear wasteland that used to be known as 'The Outback'. It was piloted by James 'Jaeger' Maleski, mercenary.

Jaeger thought back to the days after he left Prague. The news about the attack was all over the news in most of Europe, and luckily for him no evidence was discovered of his presence. After he went to the airport, he boarded a plane that would take him back to western Germany. From there he got another train to his former home town. As he had hoped, no one recognised him because he was gone for so long. He immediately went to the ruins of the headquarters of the Sentinel program, deep in a forest, and took a bunch of their stuff, like a tiltrotor VTOL dropship, as well as a recon vehicle he could use for transport. He also took a bunch of ammunition for his weapon and materials to repair his armor. After he looted the old HQ he piloted the aircraft and flew to Australia.

When he arrived in Australia he travelled around a bit, visiting the largest cities and gathering intel. He then heard rumors about an important mission in the Outback. It had something to do with an Omnium and the Omnics. Because he didn't have anything else to do and he fought against Omnics before, he searched the Outback for a few days, until he finally found what he was looking for.

By now his dropship had arrived where he wanted to be. Looking out of the window of the cockpit he could see hovering transports as well as some sort of landing platform. He landed near the platform, although it looked more like an emergency landing as he was not a very good pilot. He quickly put on his suit and grabbed his weaponry. He then walked out of the dropship and saw the others.

(Torbjörn)
Torbjörn visited the Outback due to hearing about some Omnic activity in Australia, and felt obliged to fix up the mess he felt he started, he has yet to find the location of Overwatch's new base after hearing by a news cover from Atlas News that Gibraltar, The Illegal Overwatch's old new base was attacked by Talon, and so the recall location wasn't exactly broadcasting to the right area, after while from being in Austrlia, he saw a few hovering transports and decided to investigate them and headed near the area and saw what he thought to be one of his old friend's daughter and some other figures he didn't recognize, so he decided to walk towards the group

"I'm guessing you're here to investigate the the spike in Omnic activity here and a what seems to be a reactivated Omnium?, if so, I want to help" Torbjörn says

Her hands stayed planted on the railing as she waited for the ships to connect with the communicating pad. She could hear the steps grow louder behind her and she readied herself to take charge. The woman had lead missions before, briefed people countless time, but never had it been so uncoordinated. It felt like a bunch of misfits had accumulated here. At least uncle Torb had decided to tag along, she had always wanted to work with him and she finally had her chance. The woman turned to face the assorted soldiers and cleared her throat.

'Now that we are finally here a few ground rules, we don't make a big show about our work and definitely don't claim any part in victory, if we succeed. We should have some people on the ground, recon specialists, should go in first and try to make contact. Once that is established, we go in as mission specific squads, we need people on repair and maintenance duty to take care of existing hostile omnics, we need people to assist any remaining citizens to evac the conflicted regions and seek harbor at safe zone and finally we need people to locate and take down the omnium by whatever means necessary, but lesser the flamboyance, better it is. Needless to remind you, our allegiance has technically been disbanded, so we might be operating a little outside the law, try to ensure no one figures out who we are... Good luck' she threw a warm smile at the Swedish engineer and hoped things went well as she put on her helmet, the final piece of her jet pack suit.

Jaeger was silent for a moment, thinking what he wanted to do. He wasn't very good with helping people, so the evac option was out of the way. Then he knew. After the woman had spoken he raised his hand and said: "I'll do recon and will help taking down the omnium if that's okay"

(Torbjörn)

The engineer was impressed on how fareeha is taking the approach on the current situation and briefing of what needs to be done

"Good job far- I should probably call you by something else to avoid anyone hearing your name that's not supposed to, I'm sure you already have a call sign?" Torbjörn states and questions

"I can keep up on repairs and maitnence and taking care of the the hostiles, so leave that to me"

*Torbjörn then returns the smile and walks towards the vehicle that is transporting them to the mission area*

As they all meet, Fareeha turned around and greeted the operatives that got her call. She gave the run down on what this mission will be like and what needed to be done. The moment that Gunter seen the face of their leader, a funny feeling came over him. A warmth touch was what he felt which he hasn't experienced in a while. He had never seen such beauty that an authoritative woman can hold. Her voice still had the same touch too when she started speaking. Sure, he has worked with female overwatch agents on the field before but there was something unique about Fareeha. Gunter still tried not to get distracted by thinking more of Fareeha and focused on the mission details since that what he was here for, not looking for a prom date.

After she told them what jobs needed to be done, everyone started claiming positions.

"Since I'm more about action, I'll fit in the group locating the omnium and taking it down." said Gunter confidently while standing strong and at attention with his weapon held firmly.

As they were dismissed, he saw that Fareeha put on her helmet that was a part of the armor. Still, she looked elegant wearing armor or not. Gunter tried to force himself to look away and go to their transports. Before he walked away, he noticed the legendary Torbjörn joining in with them. As much as Gunter wanted to say hi and he was a big fan of him, he stilled had a duty to be done. What Fareeha said about this operation being illegal, this doesn't discourage Gunter that job couldn't be done. It was time for him to stop giving a damn and do the world a favor.

“Oi cunt! Get on the fuckin’ engine while ah keep ‘er steady!”



“Wha?! Are you shitting me!”



“One of us has to fix the damn thing and I’m the pilot!”



”Fuck me!”



Mason, while fighting the increasingly intense vibrations of the at least two decades old Cessna 172 with a jerry-rigged pulse engine, shifted in his cramped seat in the cockpit next to a sixty year old Australian “pilot” named, ironically, Jerry. The young man turned himself to face the door, wrestling with the handle before pushing it open against the rushing wind. A few thousand feet below, the sand of the outback was getting closer as the aircraft went into a post-stall nosedive.



“If you hadn’t climbed too fucking steep, we wouldn’t even be so knee deep in shit!”



“JUST SHUT UP AND FIX THE FUCKIN’ ENGINE YOU LAZY AMERICAN CUNT!”



Like something straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, there was a low, long whine as they reached terminal velocity. Gritting his teeth and yelling against the rushing air, Mason managed to force the door wide open and reached out to the wing. His left hand found purchase on one of the poles extending from the main body, and semi-swung himself out. The door slammed closed behind him.



The wanderer’s ears failed to hear anything but his own blood pumping and the wind, knuckles whitening as he dangled with only two hands keeping him from becoming a crumpled bag of bones and meat on the ground. Shame took over his mind as he felt his jeans fill with a warm liquid.



Screaming against the fear, voice carried off instantly, he put his feet on one wheel before reaching over to grab onto a small piece of the body that stuck out at the side of the windshield. Then, his other hand found itself at the same spot, before he pulled himself up and over and onto the engine hood itself. Now, Mason was relatively secure with the wind pushing him against the glass.



The kid was a hacker and a code monkey, but he had had some free time and some situations where he needed to learn how to fix an engine and fast. An airplane engine could not have been much different from a two-cycle or a car engine. With a really, really big knife he pulled out of a scabbard at his belt, he pried off the hood which flew off into the sky where he did not have to deal with it. Inside, nothing was moving, which was the particular problem that had lead to his precarious position. With squinted eyes, Mason found nothing immediately, and signaled for Jerry to try starting it up. The pistons pumped up and down, the crankshaft turned, everything did what it was supposed to do. What the hell was the problem then?



Wait...



Mason turned around and signaled for Jerry to check his dashboard, and eventually got across to him to look at the fuel. At first he gave a thumbs up back, but then decided to hit the dash with his fist a few times. Then the pilot’s face paled and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.



Oh no...we’re gonna have to glide it in...



Mason turned back around, and felt the nose turn back up to a forty-five degree angle relative to the ground.



I don’t think I can get back in.



Mason started screaming at the top of his lungs. A high-pitched, emasculating screech as he watched the nose shallow up its angle as the details of the sand below got easier to make out.

Jaeger stared at what was happening, amazed by the actions of the leader of the group.

Then he talked to the others that were going on the recon mission: "I'm going to use my dropship for aerial surveillance. It can't hurt to have that." His real motivation was that he'd rather work alone, but he didn't tell anyone that. Then he went into the cockpit of his aircraft, drank some water and started the engine.

Jaeger's dropship was flying gracefully over the Outback desert, as Jaeger himself was busy piloting it and looking for the enemy at the same time. To find the omnium, he´d been circling the area around the platform where he started from for a few hours, getting farther and farther away. While testing a few functions of his dropship he eventually found out he could use two machineguns at the front of the aircraft to provide air support if needed. He was just about to eat some food he had stored away in there when he spotted it.

A Bastion Unit. Shit, he thought. What they said about the Omnium was true. He quickly activated the dropship guns and shot it before it had a chance to stop him. He then flew a bit higher until he could see the Omnium too. He quickly grabbed the radio of the dropship, turned it to the frequency for communication with the team and started speaking: "This is Jaeger. I have found the Omnium at these coordinates, I shot a Bastion too, but I think there might be more."

Gunter was assigned to Jaegar's ship since the both of them were a part of the search and destroy objective for the mission. He sat back in the where the dropship carried troops. So far, it looked like Jaegar and he was part of this team to eliminate this threat. The engines hummed loudly as they lift off and went on to do their mission. There was a lot of chatter was going off on their communicators from an old airplane that was about to crash near their landing site. Luckily, they were saved by Fareeha's gear and there were no injuries that were made from the landing. As Jaegar flew them, Gunter was starting to get bored from this silent ride and was tired of it since he had to spend hours with it trying to get to this irradiated wasteland. He tried to come up with a conversation before they reached their destination.

"Sooo... you like old ca-" said Gunter but was cut off from the dropship guns firing at targets.

Jaegar announced he came into contact with a bastion unit. Most likely a scout from the omnium facility, keeping watch for any possible threats.

"Land us down right here, were going to have to go on foot so we won't get shot down by any alerted anti-air defense systems." warned Gunter about their situation."