Yup, Cogs pretty much has it, as far as dealing with the civilians goes. By the way, I was planning to save this for if it came up in game, but Rachel<strong>did</strong>specifically say to disable the vehicles without destroying them (page 5, almost exactly half way down: "JD, circle around clockwise, get in front of the trucks. Wait for me and Oscar to engage, then do what you can to<em><strong> disable the trucks without destroying them or putting anyone already loaded in danger</strong></em>. I don't know what you can manage at superspeed, but maybe you can get the batteries out of the engines, or at least slash the tires?", Rachel turns to Voltaje again...), partly because she was thinking of using them in hastily organized evacuation. As it stands, that didn't work out, but it's pretty fair to assume they know the area better than we do, and we were doing a nice job of keeping the enemy occupied while the villagers fled. So you see, Rachel has her reasons for damn near everything...<br/><br/>Including why she wouldn't send Voltaje off to do pretty much anything. Oscar's telepathy aside, we don't know squat about her right now. Not to mention, in Rachel's eyes Voltaje has proved herself of only one thing really, and that's having fairly impressive powers. Other than that, so far the Columbian heroine has mostly come across as impetuous bordering on careless to Rachel, and then as I said regarding contacting our superiors, meaning the Marine Corps General that is in charge of our little operation, that's down to operational security.<br/><br/>Operational security basically boils down to Voltaje being a foreign national and therefore should not, except perhaps under the most desperate circumstances, be entrusted with the contact information and code phrases that would be needed to just report in, not to mention request aid. These sorts of codes are there for a reason, at the very least to verify identity and ensure that, you know, some random person doesn't call in and manage to request an air strike or something...or permission to terminate a target of opportunity, things like that. Remember, once we get in contact with our guys, we suddenly have access to lovely things like satellite recon, US carrier group support and all that comes with (evac, strike, cruise missiles...), drones, additional troops and even just raw funding (there will be acounts setup Rachel could access, once she has the info...important thing again, for special warfare troops to be able to get money for even simple things like bribes or taxi fare). All of that is stuff that there's pretty much no way Voltaje could get even with the codes (they wouldn't be able to be certain that the codes hadn't been obtained under duress, and Voltaje probably doesn't sound anything like Rachel!).<br/><br/>It's very important to remember that we, meaning Freedom Force, are agents of the United States Government, when you get right down to it, run through a branch of the military, the United States Marine Corps. We represent the USA and the USMC, and that means, especially to a proud patriot an officer like Rachel, that we have a certain professional demeanor and bearing to maintain. That means keeping flightly tag alongs, like Voltaje, who think jiggling your boobs to distract a group of supposedly professional mercenaries (which means disciplined ex-soldiers) is a valid tactical option - I don't really know how Cogs would rule it, and though I agree this game should be a little sexy, that's a little too tongue in cheek for my taste when I'm playing a character like Athena, so I'd hope that wouldn't work (in this game)! - well within reach so they can be quickly stifled.<br/><br/>And as I said, splitting up is never good tactics. We will, as much as possible at least, work in pairs. And when someone does have to do something on their own, it will never, if Rachel can manage it, be for more than a few minutes. If we sent either you or Voltaje off on your own, that really compounds the problem of what happens if something happens to you? It's incredibly more likely for one person to get stuck with trouble they can't get out of, as with a partner, there's always at least a second pair of eyes to watch your back, right? Right now, we don't understand the full extent of Ramac's influence here. We're not even going to go straight for the local authorities, because we can't know if they've been compromised (and South American governments are notoriously rife with corruption)...spoiler: I've been planning to have Rachel send Voltaje and Oscar in civvies to look for a public pay phone. Oscar knows the codes, and he can make contact, plus his telepathy makes for superior recon in undecover type situations...though now he's an NPC for the foreseable future, so I dunno...<br/><br/>Rachel is a little obviously out of place, espcially in South America, with her white, white skin and pale blue eyes. She'd stick out, maybe even be recognized, in any kind of clothing that doesn't cover her face. Maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be a apiary at the next village so she can disguire herself as a beekeeper. ;)<br/><br/>Finally, as Cogs mentioned, we don't know the full extent of Voltaje's powers, or even most of our own, for that matter. I haven't been given any special insight into how Happy or Oscar's powers work, and there's even some things about Rachel's powers (namely her regeneration) Cogs and I left do be defined later. It's kinda fun that way.