The End

Cover Of Darkness

The armoury was filled with people as we all geared up for the upcoming operation specifying our loadouts for the mission at hand. Everyone was dressed in full black spec ops suits and exo packs and everyone in our squad except Ray, Bull and Anna had opted for the new stealth recon exo which had fewer offensive capabilities but has the ability to conceal the wearer by blending into the background colours like a chameleon, not fool proof but perfect for this mission.

Our original kit would be stored at our fall back point ready for us to use after the stealth portion of the mission. But for the latter half we would give up our large heavy guns for smaller stealthier Z08 'viper' bull pup submachine guns which fired 9mm rounds with hollow point rounds equipped for maximum damage to the person being shot. A thick, short squarish silencer was screwed into the end of the barrel making the total package a very pointable length of roughly a meter.

After that I took the gun over to the attachment table to customise it and with a fiddling of screws I attached a variable multi role scope which would link into my exo suit helmet and allow me to toggle modes on the sight from holographic and thermal modes with just a thought. After filling plenty of mags with ammo and stuffing them into my vest I lifted up the gun, attached a sling to it and then slung it around myself.

I then walked out of the armoury and to the helo area where a pair of chinooks were being prepared for the death troopers, ammo and fuel being shuttled to the two. A trio of Pave Lows also sat closer towards us, the big squat helicopters evidently chosen for us so we could carry the extra kit we were going to change into after our stealth op.

The rest of the squad was standing around the ramp of our pave low, the big helicopter having the word 'ALPHA' stencilled on the side just below the name of the helicopter which read 'STEEL EAGLE' an emblem of a bald eagle sprayed on above the words. As I approached my stomach clenched as I saw Geneis among the others checking our gear over before it was loaded into the storage bay of the helicopter. "Hey Jason" called Myles without looking round and I saw the others turn except for Geneis who had stiffened somewhat and continued checking our kit over.

"Ready to go?" Asked Ray with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk as I approached, "yeah" I replied a pained grimace on my face at Rays expression. 'Can you not?!' I mouthed at him and all he did was grin as he turned back to the supply crate, "Geneis you got that stuff down?" He asked as she straightened up from the crate "yup" she replied sounding brash. "Good!" Said Ray "now go over the kit list with Jason he needs to catch up", I sighed heavily as Geneis blushed and stared daggers at Ray who didn't back down one bit, "Fine" she huffed roughly as I walked forward and she reached for a holo pad on top of the crate.

The others began heading away from the helo as I reached Geneis, she was now glowing red and was turned away from me. I stood there for a moment waiting for her to say something before I said "Hellooo?" Reaching forward to turn her round by her shoulder. She turned round looking embarrassed as I looked at her, another awkward length of silence followed before she spoke "sorry Jason" she mumbled, looking down at her boots now.

After a moment I couldn't help but smile as Geneis stood looking childlike before me, I laughed softly and she looked up at me looking both annoyed and embarrassed. "Don't worry about it" I said lightly "it's all in the past" and I smiled at her and in response she smiled timidly and nodded slightly. Having finally got the awkward apology out of the way Geneis went through the list with me showing me what was packed in the crate before me which was coming with us, after having ticked off the last item on the list we checked the crates fastenings and then rolled it up into the helicopter.

Unfortunately Hannah happened to be just stepping out of the cockpit and froze as she saw Geneis and I locking the crate into the helicopter floor and quickly tried to scramble back into the cockpit but was spotted by me which caused her to freeze as she saw me looking at her. Geneis however also looked up and her face suddenly became stony before she turned back to secure the last strap of the crate and quickly strode out the back of the helicopter. I awkwardly watched her go and then turned to Hannah who was looking somewhere between upset and alarmed as she stood watching me.