Chapter Three
HALO, Goodbye
John and Adrian were in the change rooms suiting up when Tamara and Jessica walked in. Jessica rapped on John's door with her knuckles. "Would you hurry the hell up Sir? Our plane leaves in half an hour!" she yelled through the door. Adrian couldn't help but laugh and he called out "That's a bit hypocritical don't you think? You girls ain't even dressed yet." Tamara arched a brow and looked at Jessica. "Why don't you come out here staff sergeant?" she said. John opened the door to see two black clad figures. HALO gear, John smiled.
Adrian opened his door and came out. He to was also dressed entirely in black but on his back he had a M-93S Suppressed Anti-Matter Rifle. His over-the-shoulder webbing was filled with full clips on the left side and the right side was empty, expecting the half used clips as backups. John slung his parachute over his shoulders. He was armed with a captured Heckler and Koch MP-12 Assault Rifle. It had an under-slung grenade launcher and his webbing was configured Simmiler to Adrian's except his 'spare clip pouches' were filled with demolition gear because he used enemy ammunition.
Jessica clicked open a pouch on the back of her webbing and pulled out a kit of cam paint. She walked up to the mirror and started to apply it. She was armed with an M-22 SMG and an old Sig Sauer P228 side arm. Jessica's pouches were configured different to the two commandos'. She didn't bother with half used clips because she simply stole enemy weapons when she was out of ammo. Instead her pockets were lined with maps and co-ordinates, call signs, foreign money, passports and last of all a photo of her family.
Tamara was the most bulked out of all of them. Aside from the standard backpack load out of rations and medical equipment they all had on their backs she also had a VLF (Very Low Frequency) radio to send and receive artillery commands. She was armed with a Sig Sauer P552 handgun and an M-42A3 Assault rifle with 4x scope.
The group left the building rather late on a misty evening. Lying down low on the runway was a C-49 Hercules Firefly. The latest from their development tables, the group crashed to a halt in front of the plane to see an instructor.
"Ladies" he said in a practiced, droning voice, "welcome to your first HALO, or high altitude, low opening jump. The purpose of this jump is to fly above radar range and then open your parachute below it so as not to be detected by the enemy. Procedure is quite simple, just jump and your automated gear will handle it for you. If for any reason you come into contact with a water landing then eject your parachute immediately."
Tamara and Jessica just looked at each other. It seemed easy enough jump and pray your chute opened. Tamara piped up. "Umm, what happens if the chute doesn't open?" The instructor just chuckled. "Well" he said "Pray to god." They all climbed aboard the aircraft.
The C-49 climbed to four hundred thousand feet. The four soloists were almost over the top of the target. Only about 15 kilometres to the target, they all piled up to the door. The light went red. "15 seconds" the jump master yelled. "15 seconds" the four soloists said in unison. The light went yellow. "Stand by" the master said. Then the light turned green. They all threw themselves out the door, aiming at a landing spot highlighted with flares. Down, down, down they all flew until they hit five hundred feet and the chutes opened.
They all hit the floor with a sickening crunch and fanned out with there weapons high. "Clear" sounded off John. "Clear" sounded off Adrian, as did Tamara and Jessica. They were safe…for the moment.