McCleary stood in the blazing midday sun some twenty yards out from the Command Center, his imposing figure casting a short (but no less fearsome) shadow on the dry earth as he awaited the NestBreaker team's impending arrival. The old man didn't even flinch as the hulking Marauder barrelled past him at breakneck speed and thick plumes of kicked-up dust rolled over him, chasing after the vehicle like a herd of rabid marmosets. The sound of screeching brakes and the *Thud!* of metal on concrete drew an aggravated sigh from McCleary, and he shook his hanging head with a grumble.<br/><br/>"I'm gettin' too old for this shit..."<br/><br/>He marched back to the Command Center, waving an 'all clear' signal to the Mayor and Miss Dulott as they came racing out the side door, clearly panicked by the Marauder's impact. His long legs ate up the distance between his position and the disembarking BugBusters, and the driver quickly moved to meet him. "Well, look who decided to show the fuuuuck up," McCleary called out in a childish, mocking tone as he approached. "I was just getting ready to go storm the damn nest myself with a jumbo flyswatter and my granddaughter's old<em><strong>Hello Kitty</strong></em>water pistol!"<br/><br/>McCleary stopped as the driver reached him and pointed back to the rest of the team, saying...<em>something</em>in...hell, it<em>might</em>have been English, if English could have its brains blown out and soaked in recycled whiskey. He squinted at the younger man, a slight slackness in his jaw as he fruitlessly attempted to decipher  the accent, but soon gave up and nodded. "Yeah, all right. Sure, kid. Bitchin'. Whatever." He turned and gave the others a glare as they milled about by the vehicle.<br/><br/>"So, where's mine?" He growled, meeting each team member's eyes and bracing his fists on his hips. At the look of collective confusion that swept their expressions, McCleary barked, "Well? I assumed since you took so damn long to get here, you must have stopped off for coffee and biscuits!" A roll of his eyes answered the prettyboy gun nut's query about radio gear, and he brushed past them all on his way into the Command Center. "Would you all be so kind as to remove the thumbs that are currently planted up your puckered asses, and join me in the bunker to brief for the mission that's probably gonna get you all killed?"<br/><br/>Mayor Higgins remained standing outside, waving the NestBreaker team inside with a jovial smile as Eliza followed McCleary inside to begin passing out the mission notes. Once the team was inside, McCleary wasted no time waiting for anyone to take a seat, and instead began tapping with a long, thin pointer on a large hanging map of the surrounding terrain. "Alright, here's the skinny. We are here," he said, pointing to a small area inside a blue circle near the center of the map, "and the nest is here." He flicked the pointer toward the map's northeast corner.<br/><br/>"About 40 miles or so from here, which puts it about 15 miles inside the DZ border. There are sentry bugs posted about a mile from the nest, and aerial patrols will probably spot us long before that. Now I know what you're thinking: if we're just supposed to collect specimens, why not just take the sentries and forget about blitzin' the nest? But that's not gonna work. We've already snagged and bagged our share of these fuckers during the raids they've been launching against us, but the docs say none of the specimens we caught were any good. Best they can figure is--"<br/><br/>"The doctors have determined that there must be some sort of compound present in the heart of the nest, probably dispensed by some of the queens, that acts as a kind of preservative for the viral cells," Eliza interjected, her posh accent sounding both disturbingly out of place and right at home in the shabby bunker. "They surmise that the recent raiding parties have been composed of bugs that have undergone insufficient exposure to this compound; therefore, you'll be required to penetrate into the nest's inner chambers to extract specimens with suitable levels of both the virus and the preservative agent. Now, as to actually collecting the specimens--"<br/><br/>"We got some local talent that's come up with a solution that little problem," McCleary said, just as Chester poked his head into the room. "Ah, right on time, kid. Folks, this is Chester Banning--"<br/><br/>"Hello!"<br/><br/>"And he's the one who'll be providing our collection and containment services today. He's also developed the toys you'll be using to drag the bug carcasses out of the nest. A couple of rifles have been--"<br/><br/>"See, what I did was, I took a couple of Mr. McCleary's rifles and I modified them, you know," Chester said, cutting McCleary off as he shuffled into the room, "and well really, I didn't do very much, I just swapped out the barrels for larger ones to fit these grappling bolts I cut, and added these CO2 canisters to increase the firing power so the bolts can pierce the bugs' shells, so alls you'll need to do is--"<br/><br/>"Er, I'm sure they get the idea, Mr. Banning," said Mayor Higgins, waving the young man off. "After all, they look like professional, bright...er, well, professionals, anyway."<br/><br/>McCleary growled and crossed his arms, glaring at the gathering. "Does anyone else have anything to add to this cock-up, or can I finish this briefing before my arthritis ointment wears off?" Silence fell around the table, and McCleary cleared his throat with a hacking cough before continuing. "Thank you. Now, as I was sayin', we've got our location. Metabug collection, containment and transport are covered. Lab geeks have estimated we shouldn't need to penetrate more than half a kilometer in, so the chances of hitting any methane pockets are pretty low; still, it ain't out of the question, so use of heavy explosives is gonna be limited until we're on our way back out. We get in, hit the fuckers with some shock 'n' awe, get what we're after, and then we shut 'em down hard. Any questions?"<br/><br/>Chester immediately raised one arm, a hopeful expression on his face, and McCleary pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.<br/><br/>"Any questions that don't involve nicknames, codenames, or call signs?"<br/><br/>Chester let his hand sink back into his lap with a soft groan of defeat.<br/><br/>McCleary clapped his hands once, the rough calloused leather of his palms producing a sound like a gunshot. "Alright then...let's go bug huntin!"