(OOC: Sorry to hold up the works -- it's been a bit of a crazy time on my end.)
Rory quite nearly did a double-take when Imber assigned him to lead the team. Truth be, he didn't much see himself as a leader, just someone who could get in and take the hits for his teammates when needed. The idea that the other four would be looking to him sat more than a little heavy on his shoulders, though he did his best not to let it show. The four girls seemed plenty competent and skilled... with any luck he wouldn't need to do more than --
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehahahahaaaaaaaaaaa."
-- and suddenly people were jumping out of the Bullhead. Great. So much for 'taking the lead'. It wasn't Rory's first aerial insertion jump but it also wasn't his favorite thing about mission deployments. Others had weapons or a Semblance that could manage the drop without much trouble, but he... always had to drop and hope.
"Here goes nothing." He muttered to himself, hoping Mr. Mordred didn't hear.
That initial moment of being airborne, right between leaping out and gravity taking hold, was always when the strongest burst of adrenaline hit. In the space of split-seconds Rory saw the trees below him, felt the wind against his skin, and intuited roughly how he was going to fall. Swiftly deploying his shields, he held his arms in front of him, angled his body head-down, and braced for the inevitable crack as the first branches snapped against his defense. Birch. Birch. Birch. Pine. The kickback from the impacts increased as he went down, something he could feel in his tensed-up arms. It was just a matter of time until...
... yep, like clockwork -- Rory's shields hit a branch thick enough that it didn't immediately snap off and fall away. He curled his legs up towards his chest and rolled off to avoid absorbing the entirety of the impact. Now he was slowed enough; shields collapsing, he grabbed for a passing branch, swung, grabbed another, and finally managed to land halfway down a decent size maple tree. That... had not been as bad as he'd feared. He'd be cleaning sap and pine needles out of his vambraces, sure, but at least he'd landed instead of crashed. The shieldmeister sighed in relief before carefully hopping the rest of the way down.
"Well, that was fun. Everyone good?"