We were briefed on ¨light inclement weather upon entry¨. To say that was a more than mild understatement wouldn’t do it justice of how wrong that intel was. It’s pouring rain and visibility was down to 18%. Even with thermals scouting the AO would be a challenge.

“45 seconds to drop zone!” yelled the crew chief. Me and Jayce nodded in unison to the update and began our gear check.

“You’re good Aether!” yelled Jayce after he did a quick check on my wingsuit. I turned and checked his deploy straps, his secondary engage, his chute, and made sure his weapons were securely attached to his kit.

“You’re checked out!” I yelled over the roar of the engine of the Vertibird. Me and Jayce stood shoulder to shoulder at the back of the bird waiting for the door open releasing us into the unknown territory that was controlled by the Russoasian Alliance.  The door slowly opened with an ear shattering squeaking as we waited for the go ahead from the crew chief. The crew chief checked his holo watch and pulled up a 3D image of our surroundings showing our trajectory as we closed in on the jump zone.

“Go,go,go!” He waved us through and me and Jayce jumped bullet diving to our destination. My HUD showed my speed and altitude as we plummeted through the rainy skies at 75 km/h. We were to deploy our suits at 1,500 meters and fly 5 clicks north to our overwatch point. My earpiece began to beep furiously as we closed in on our deployment altitude. When the beep became a long continuous screech I deployed my suit. I switched my Hud to see Jayce’s feed to make sure he was holding formation as we flew through the frigid wet air. He was following within 25 meters of my tail and maintaining his speed without the threat of overtaking me. We were now holding an altitude of approximately 650 meters according to my altimeter. Our objective was two clicks away and we were still moving to fast. I signaled for Jayce to brake on my command as we closed in half a click to our objective. I pulled up at a 90 degree angle and dropped my speed significantly and watched through Jayce’s feed as he did the same.

“Deploy chute!” I yelled into the radio as I pulled my own.

“Chute deployed,” said Jayce as he followed my lead. I could see our objective from here now even with poor visibility and we were still a little too fast and the inclement weather was not helping that fact. I pulled up on my chute and began to climb ever so slightly as I attempted to drop my speed to below 20 km/h and began to orbit my target. My speed was becoming more manageable as I closed in on the ground and my landing came softly. I shrugged off my chute as I waited for Jayce to land near me. I unslung my sniper rifle and switched my vision mode to thermal as I took in my surroundings. Jayce landed a few meters behind me and got his gear ready.

“We have a short little hike about 400 meters southeast up this hill we should have good eyes on the FOB from there.”

“You sure we can’t just head west for 150 and get just as good visuals?” I turned and glared at Jayce he seems to have a slight issue with obeying commands as they’re given and seems to challenge me on everything. Even when his rebuttals make no sense.

“Why would we move west away from our objective when there’s a higher point southeast that has more foliage cover?” I asked to a now embarrassed Jayce as he suddenly got really interested in his carbine.

“Ready when you are SL,” he said dejectedly. I started at an evenly paced trot to the southeast. My thermal sighting wasn’t picking up any signatures however the Russians had finally developed their own version of active camouflage that could mask their heat signatures and make them invisible to the naked eye. The only way to spot those who use it is to use echolocation. The only downside to echolocation is that it’s frequency can be picked up on any radio within a seven click radius so using it is a last resort. It’d be safer to wait to be engaged before engaging the device. We moved for what felt like hours in the terrible weather but it was more like an hour. Jayce and I laid in the grass with my bipod deployed and his thermal rangefinder glued to Jayce’s head. We could see the compound clearly but it looked seemingly empty with a few isolated soldiers here and there. Suddenly, I heard a slight rustling that was too large for an animal and froze. I then heard a firearm chamber a round behind my head and a rough Russian voice say,

“Don’t move or die Ameriscum.”