Replica (Original Work)

Chapter 20 - Thunder and Blood

"Five minutes until drop."

The second ride of the night afforded less time for reflection, and carried on in weighted silence save the pilot's ETA update. Even our transport, a proprietary black stealth helicopter all styled in angles and aggression, was comparatively noiseless as it cut through the night sky. An achievement for a rotorcraft.

Everything takes on a sort of alien feel when you ride into combat. It all becomes so much more instinctual, not an experience that fits easily into words, and one very much magnified in the throes of the already dehumanizing conditional. If I could speak to what was in my head that night, I'd say it was all tactile. Abstraction abandoned, what I had was the rifle in my hands, the armor over my flesh, and the enhancements buried under my skin.

I looked around the rear compartment of the chopper. The six OpSec men were all fixed into the same mental place I was, as much as they and I could share the same place anyway. Somewhere down in the abyss below, Dunlap and Cutter, my elements, would be lagging slightly behind as they got their vehicles into position. I activated my thoughtsync after a long breath, in and out, the last I'd get alone until the night was up. One by one the others did the same.

"After we I hit the ground at the DZ I want you off second Lawson. There's a small hill just behind the clearing we're dropping on so I want you to move your ass up it and get us at least some overwatch. Torque, Hammer, you two drop after him and get us a little forward breathing room, I don't want any nasty surprises. Forbes, Jones, and O'Donnell, you come down last and stick close to me. Any objections?" The orders slipped out of my mind clean and quick.

"None ma'am." Lawson said. The others nodded in agreement. Good.

"One minute, secure your cables and be ready."

The pilot's announcement prompted me to reach for the descent harness situated a few inches above my head and sling the thing around my body. The things were designed to be quick release, but damned if they were ever easy to put on. After completing the procedure I tugged at the cable to verify it was solidly fixed to the electric winch above, and counted down the remaining seconds. Right on time, the chopper's bay doors opened.

I sprinted out the back bay, activating the FSAC gear as I started to drop. No sense worrying about conditions in the clearing, if there was somebody there already we'd all be so much flaming debris by now. The helicopter had situated just above the treeline, giving me about twenty meters of controlled descent to the ground. I estimated the remaining distance in my mind as I fell toward solid earth. Fifteen. Five. Crunch. Soft grass and dead leaves gave under my feet. I pressed the release on my harness and shed it, readying my weapon, itself the only visible thing on me at that point.

The silence struck like a hammer. This area was dead. Not so much as a nocturnal songbird punctuated the still air in the moments between my landing and the soft sounds of Lawson making contact with the soil before starting up the hill to my rear. Hammer dropped next, then Torque, and judging by their footsteps the two swept out in opposite directions ahead of me in a kind of fork, disappearing a little ways into the treeline as ordered. It was odd not being able to see them, but not impossible to compensate for with the thoughtsync. I focused all my attention forward, completing our ad hoc field of fire toward the facility down in the distance, and waited out the remaining three impacts rounding out our number.

"Clear on this end," Hammer reported.

"Likewise," said Torque.

"Looks like the DZ is clear," I said, "But I don't like this quiet. Keep your guard up, once we get a sitrep from Lawson we can move low and slow. Lawson you found a good position yet?"