Malina silently chucked at the mention of not bringing the group down before pulling her scroll from her pouch and tapping the closed device against her nails. "Alright, good." She smiled. "Calen, Cobe, Helena, and Teddy. These are the names you'll need to remember, especially in the heat of battle. Calling out for help or to pull off a two sided attack on an enemy is crucial for success. Of course, I will also be there, and if you don't already know me, or know of me... well... I won't say my reputation proceeds me. I'm not quite as cocky as I was back when I was a first year." She smiled somewhat wider as her mind went back to all those years ago before quickly snapping back into the moment. "My name is Malina Nahualli, as I told Helena, just Malina is fine. I'm from..." She glanced out of the window and unconsciously bit her lower lip as she saw the golden hued trees of the early morning sweep by. "I'm from west of Vacuo." She brought her eyes back to her students. "I am, or was at least, the leader of team Mocha and graduated from Beacon, same as you all will. Now, I'm more of a tactician, leading team attacks, supporting from afar but getting up close when I need to. This thing isn't just for show, ya know." She smiled as she gestured to the staff, now leaning against the wall, next to her. "That all said, I'm shadowing you all today. I won't be leading the mission so much as... guiding it. In a few moments, one of you is going to be chosen to be leader for the mission." Her eyes swept across the group before her in an almost over exaggerated motion. "But before that!" She popped open the scroll in her hands into its tablet mode. "We have some information to go over." The blank blue screen was replaced with an aerial photo of a small village positioned at the top of a hill with a large wall surrounding it and a dark hole at the very center.
"This..." Malina said, gesturing to the hardlight screen. "... is Jackson. This photo was taken from a bullhead during one of the latest missions out there, a simple village defense. Nothing out of the ordinary was reported and the mission was a success." Malina tapped twice on the photo and it zoomed in on some of the houses. "As you can see, it's a standard sub-city settlement. Wooden homes, a concrete building near the mine in the middle, some steel buildings near that for the hierarchical work. The large wall surrounding the village..." She swiped on the photo and it moved to focus on a section of the wall. "... Is manned by at least four people at a time, one in each cardinal direction. They may be a relatively small settlement, but they still have plenty of guns and ammo from the Dust trade. Speaking of which..." Malina pinched on the photo and zoomed it out as far as it went, showing the Village and the surrounding swamp, extending miles and miles away from the village. "... While this might only show so much, this is the only village within over 100 miles and is a frequent stop for huntsmen and huntresses on missions, both to rest, stock up on Dust, and get chow." Malina slid the scroll closed with a sharp clack. "Now, you can see why Beacon might be concerned with it going dark." She slid the scroll back into her pouch and zipped it shut.
"Unfortunately, we don't have many detailed photos from within the swamp, and photos from above are next to useless. The long and the short of it is that it sucks. It's hot, there's tons of bugs, you can easily get your foot stuck in the ground... and, of course, Grimm." She paused for a moment to briefly look over everyone before continuing. "I'll be honest, things aren't as clean cut out here as they are in northern Vale. The danger doesn't come from powerful Grimm, it comes from overwhelming swarms. Now, with five of us, we should be able to deal with the swarms just fine, especially with some of the semblances I read in your reports. That said, this place is infamous for new Grimm popping up and chances are we might face off against something we haven't seen before... As for the swamp itself, thankfully plenty of hunters have walked the path before us and we have a very reliable map to work with."
Malina let out a sigh as she finished speaking and smiled softly. "Now, I know that's... a lot of info. But I promise there will be plenty of time to go over everything again on the rest of the ride over there. But for now... we need too pick a leader." Malina puts her hands on her hips and looks toward Teddy. "Well, I say 'pick' but I've already chosen. Teddy, you're going to be the leader for this mission."