Chapter 2: The Drop
I woke up to the sound of a gun being cocked and loaded. "Ugh… How long have I been out?" I ask groggily paying no attention to the weight on my chest. "18 hours, and it seems like Ruby and Yang are still asleep" says Blake. I look over to the mess of golden hair on the other side of the bench from me and catch sight of a red cape just out of the bottom of my eye. Looking down, I see the sleeping form of Ruby, her face nuzzled into my chest. "How far are we from the drop zone?" I ask. "30 minutes. Best get Ruby up." said Blake. I gently shake Ruby, until she finally wakes up and pushes herself off my torso. "Ugh… morning guys" says Ruby. "Morning ever-y-body" says Yang cheerfully. "Let's get ready to drop into Cerebus" I say.
As I stand up, I stretch out my back, which was compressed due to Ruby being on top of me all night. As we get our armor and helmets on, I see that there is a pair of jump jets on the back of my helmet, which opened up compartments on my back, exposing more jump jets. I strap on my combat gear, I see that the others are ready and waiting to jump. "Okay, I'm opening up the rear hatch now, jump is in 30 seconds" says Stevens. I feel a large blast of air enter the ship. "3, 2, 1, GO!" I yell.
After we jump, I feel my jets kick into action, directing me to view a small green patch among the surface of grey earth. "We'll land there. In the green patch about 2 miles east of Cerebus!" I yell. As we come into line with the green patch, I feel my body growing heavier as we pass through the radiation layer. The radiation layer is what used to be the troposphere of the atmosphere before the bombing of Vytal. Now the air is just made up of nuclear radiation and Dust particles, making a concoction that kills in seconds. At about 5000 meters from our landing site, I spin my body around so that my feet are facing down. At 1000 meters my jump jets kick in, giving me time to slow down as to make a safe decent. I land with a sharp "Oof!" as I see the rest of the team landing all around me.
"All right, check weapons and activate HUDs, we move out in 1 hour, when it's dark out" says Ruby. After the darkness has come, Ruby pipes up and says "Okay, move out!" We make our way slowly into Cerebus base, and are immediately greeted by the sight of four White Fang troops. We each take one, putting our combat knives into their necks, blood covering our hands and torsos. "Okay, let's move into the facility" says Yang.