A little red light came on by the chute door and Push stood and began to adjust her gear and parachute bag. "Don't just sit there maggots! On your feet!" She commanded once she realized she was the only one doing so.

The rest of the women began to scramble to do begin their gear checks as well. Soon after the trained hands came by and did a double check on their gear as well. Meanwhile Push explained that the group would be dropping through rather heavy cloud cover and should make sure to keep their eyes on their altitude gear since they wouldn't be able to see the ground very well.

The girls nodded and slowly began to walk in two lines toward the back. The cargo jet began to rattle as it dropped in altitude for the jump. The red light turned yellow and the butt of the cargo jet opened up exposing thick clouds. Ain began to get a bad feeling but chalked it up to being the first cloud cover jump she was making.

The yellow light had a green peg come on beside it and the gear hands began to push out the supply crates the group would be using on their mini training session. Then the yellow light it self turned green and the jumpers filed out one by one from the butt of the cargo jet.

Ain never could figure out if she actually liked the feel of jumping from a plane. There was that momentary thrill of feeling like you were actually flying of course but as the ground rushed in closer the feeling soon always became a bit fearful with thoughts of 'what if the chute doesn't open this time?'

In this instance however it was even worse. Ain couldn't even enjoy the usual birds eye view before due to the clouds. It was like a super thick fog that seemed to plaster the parts of her face that was exposed with cold moisture. Flashbacks from the car wreck came. It was cold and wet then too.

Ain shook her head to try and calm her self. No sense panicking about a car wreck when she was spiraling down toward the ground at break neck speeds. Ain checked the piece of gear that measured her altitude. It would be another moment or so before she could pull the release cord. She peered into the cloud cover all around her to see if she could see any of the others. The only person she could make out was somebody barely to her right and a bit below but she couldn't tell who it was. They waved and she waved back.

The blonde woman then turned her attention back to the altitude gear. The time was coming soon and she readied her other hand on the rip cord. In the corner of her eye she caught the other person pulling their rip cord and a fraction of a second later pulled hers as well.

She kept eyes on the person she could see in order to make very sure to steer away from them in case she had too. A large shadow passed over what she could see of the other person's chute. Ain had just a few seconds to wonder what the hell it was when a severed para-cord slashed out at her face drawing blood. The chute she had previously been looking at was now smothering her face and entangling it's self around her.

As the wind whipped around her, Ain struggled to get semi free of the obtrusive chute as fast as she could. She got her face freed just in time to notice that the silvery grey that had been surrounding her at first was now dotted and littered with pine tree tops.

Ain cussed inwardly as she lifted her feet to avoid smashing into one of the tall pines. The new chute however caught on the pine and the resulting force began to cause Ain to spin. This was good to free herself from the entangling chute but bad because now her own para cords were beginning to twist and tangle around themselves as well.

The blond now swore outwardly as she descended further into the forest below. She heard and felt branches creak, break, and groan as she came crashing down in an awkward spin. The pine's needles scratched the exposed parts, and the chute began to rip and tear because of the trees. The good news in all of this was that she was slowing down at least. Even if it was in jerky halts at a time. The now tattered chute caught for the last time on a sturdy branch and Ain's form jerked from the sudden halt in motion, bounced for a moment then finally swayed slowly to a still.

Ain coughed to try to regain the air in her lungs that had left from that sudden stop. She put a slow hand to her helmet as she turned too and fro still from the unraveling para cord. The woman looked around as she hung suspended on a tree. The forest was eerily quite and she held her breath to listen for any sign of the others.

Soon there were groans and sputters of feminine curses as the others did checks over their selves. Ain breathed in a sigh of relief to know that at least somebody else had made it safely to the ground. A knot formed in her throat at the thought of the woman who hadn't. Ain wondered if it was one of her bunk mates or not. She looked down and tried to judge how far it was to the ground from her current position. After realizing it didn't really matter and that there was only one way down, Ain took the pocket knife from her pocket and cut the cords to her harness.

She fell far enough for her stomach to momentarily end up in her throat but not long enough to do any more damage than the trees had already done. Ain landed with a unceremonious thump on the damp pine needled covered ground below.

"Marco!" Lilly's voice rang out loudly abruptly through the forest. It was a sound that was half greeted with laughter and groans. Some other voices in the distant even answered 'polo' in the same fashion.

All jests were silent however at Push's command of... "Shut it or I'll shut it for ya!"

Strange noises were coming from the forest every night. One night while she was switching watches with another team mate named Lilly, Lilly was nearly crushed by a fallen tree. Ain had some how managed to throw both of them to the side in time to avoid it. However in the fall Ain banged her head severely yet again. The price of heroism and all. After the bang up the noises started getting louder and louder and Ain began to see a white masked figure on her watches.

The group chalked it up to the head trauma and yet again Ain was convinced she was seeing things. The next night the entire group was woken up by the death screams of some massive animal and a lightly falling snow. Shortly after the group was found and debriefed on the death of the one team member. The military filed it as a failed equipment death.

PPW Golden ~~~~*

I feel strange posting all these chapter's at once. But it is what I've got written so far so ...yeah lol.

Hope somebody out there in the vast ether finds this of intrest!