There are a lot of things in this world that I want to do. Own a slammed, 12 cylinder, 1000 horsepower Toyota Supra, own a diesel powered Chevy Avalanche, have a nice house and a 5 gun cabinet that was full of tastefully modified rifles, become a dragon, oh, wait, I can check that off. However, there is one thing in this world that I absolutely loathe and detest. You could pay me a million dollars each time I do this thing and I would still tell you to fuck off. You know what that tiny little thing is? Waking up at 6 in the fucking morning. No, seriously, take your 6AM alarm and shove it. I don't want anything to do with it. As it stood I could wake up by myself at no earlier than 7:00, and that was only if I really wanted to sneak some time on Fallout 4 before super ultra bitch descended on his cloud of misery to annoy me about my play style. When you wake me up at 5 in the morning and then talk to me like a five year old, Mom, I'm looking at you, until I get out of bed, you will succeed only in making want to tear your face off and shove it into your ear, which by the way I can do now. In short, don't wake me the fuck up.

But alas, I was not to ascend to the mythical kingdom of Deep Sleepia on this fine day because the Pilots of the C-230 Gunship that were taking us to the middle east were morning people. The call came at 5:45 that morning that the C-230 was an hour and a half away, which gave us no time at all to eat breakfast and barely enough time to get our equipment ready and get dressed.

So, in a state of half-dead, half alive, we trudged across the cold sand of Area 29 that was preparing to be cooked by the death valley sun to the armory. Upon entering, the armory graced my nose with the smell of gun oil, smokeless power and matte paint, pulling me back from the brink and waking me up. Still a little tired though, I set about modifying my M220. I changed out the stock from a collapsible Magpul UBR to an ACR style folding stock that was also fully adjustable. I changed my front rail as well and opted to make my S22 Combat rifle my permanent secondary over my S-30 due to the magazine compatibility with my LMG. I packed my S-30 away, grabbed some C4, grenades, claymores, tear gas, a gasmask and Nine-bangs out of my crate and loaded them into my assault pack. As I was closing my crate, I caught sight of our LP-9100 Flamethrower. I found myself opening my box back up and picking up. Something in my mind was screaming at me "Take the flamethrower, you will regret it if you do not bring it."

"In the bag you go", I said sticking it into the duffle.

"The flamethrower?", Mercury asked looking at me from his cell, "why are you taking the flamethrower?"

"Something's telling me I'll need it", I said.

"What?", he asked.

I shrugged, "I couldn't tell you, something's just telling me take the flamer, you'll regret it if you don't."

"Brother you played too much Shell Shock 2", Mercury replied shaking his head and grinning slightly.

"Hey I never even got to play that game", I said zipping my assault pack and duffle bag closed, "my Dad rented it and took it back the next day."

'Sucks for you", Mercury laughed, "I loved that game."

I shook my head, "your what 10?"

Mercury laughed, "yes but I'll be 11 in 2 weeks."

"And your playing Shell Shock? The most bloody and scary Series in Xbox 360 history? A game that is banned in 4 countries because it induced nightmares in thousands of people?"

He shrugged, "only time I was genuinely scared was when I got attacked by Lab Rats in the Laos mission."

"Lab Rats?", I asked.

"Don't ask", Mercury said, "even as a dragon that could spray them with liquid nitrogen I would nope out of there so hard if one showed up."

"If one what showed up?", Nina asked joining us, her assault pack and duffle slung over her shoulders.

"Lab Rats from Shell Shock", I said, "Mercury's played through both games."

"Nope", Nina said, "hashtag fuck dis game, I never made it halfway through the first one it scared me so bad. People who say it's not scary have never played the South Korean version, with no filters for graphic content and story line removed."

"Koreans make some violent shit", I said.

"No kidding?", Mercury said as we walked from the armory to the Tarmac, where we found professor Green looking like someone had beat him up for lunch money and with green and red boxes in his hands.

"You look beat to shit prof", Nina said.

Green nodded, "I'm tired, but it's worth it. I have here a permanent patch to the serum. I've done enough testing to be confident that giving it to you will do nothing but help, and it may help you sleep on the trip." He smiled.

"Well I'm sold", I said.

"very well", the prof said. He filled ten small syringes and gave us each an injection that stung a little for the first few seconds, but other than that left me feeling completely normal.

"Thanks for doing this for us professor", Mercury smiled, "we owe you one."

"Your payment will be finding out what came of my research", he yawned, "I think that's a fair trade. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pass out on my couch."

I and a few others with me couldn't help but laugh. It was about two or three minutes of waiting before the tell tale signs of the Venom Project's Diesel Turboshaft powered C-260 gunship came into earshot. After another three or four minutes, we began to see it's lights and a minute after that it had touched down on the runway and the crew greeted us.

The inside of the 260 reminded me of the Ford Focus Rally car that I had always wanted, but knew I would never have the money to own. The interior was stripped out as much as they could get it without skeltonizing it. Because of that it was a bit heavier than a normal 260 gunship, but the bigger, turbocharged diesel engines were able to offset the weight. There were two giant 155mm Artillery pieces sticking out of each side of the plane with piles of shells next to them. Secondary weapons came in the form of four, yes four, 40mm BoFUS cannons supplemented by four 40x40mm MK-19 grenade launchers and last but not least, Six 27mm rotating barrel chain guns as sidearms. The gunship to rival gunships. We secured our gear in the cargo hold with the ammo for the big guns and then walked to the front of the plane where we found this plane had been modified to accommodate the crew with cooking, cleaning and sleeping facilitates. It wasn't anything like the C-230 we'd flown to Pakistan in the previous time, but it was tastefully done and every inch of space had been utilized for something. There was thin fabric that was being supported by a wire mesh covering the walls, a semi-fluffy carpet covering the floor There was a simple piece of steel welded to the wall with a camping stove welded to that to serve as a cooking area, while two mini fridges that were bolted to the wall were used for food storage. Two metal boxes were bolted to the ground underneath the six cots that went up the wall and there were railings on them to prevent people sleeping from falling off when the plane had to dip or rise.

"People in Project Venom never cease to amaze me", Nina said dropping her assault pack in the corner of the room.

"Where do they get all this money from?", Mercury asked sitting in the corner, "I know Sam and the broad are filthy rich 1% sum and all that, but still, C-260's aren't cheap in any sense of the word even the Air Force only has 4 C-260's. I'd even go so far as to say Bill Gates would flinch at the price of a C-260."

"I went to C-Aircraft's website and saw that a C-260 just stripped, stock engines, no interior and manual transmission was like a million five", I said.

Nina whistled, "and let me guess, then you went and optioned one out?"

"Of course I did", I said dropping my assault pack and leaning against the wall. I started a completely stripped plane and when I was done", I reached into my pocket, what they didn't know was that I had done this last night and printed out the options sheet to show them in the morning. I unfolded the paper and handed it to Mercury, "have a look at that price."

I saw his face light like mine did when we opened our Xbox One on Christmas of last year.

"3.45 billion dollars in options!?", he asked stunned.

"It doesn't say that", Nina said taking it from him, her eyes going wide as well, "it says that."

Mako took the paper, "what did you do to this plane?"

"Everything", I smiled, trying to sound as much like Matt Farrah as I could., "there is stuff on this plane that is really, really dumb. Like a Leather wrapped navigation binnacle, which you can get. Leather air vents."

"Is this like a full leather...", Riley began, but I cut him off.

"Full leather everything", I laughed as the plane started down the runway, "leather everything, seats, seat belts, a light fixtures. It's got Satellite internet, LED lights, quartz nose panels, Twin supercharged Kerosene Engines, Enhanced GPS navigation, Twenty disk CD changer, hand forged aluminum interior, hand forged aluminum interior. And you'll get a kick out of this, Liquid metal chrome blue paint, 1,000,500.

My friends burst out laughing.

"A million dollars", Nina choked.

"For blue", I said, "you could get liquid metal silver paint, also a million bucks. For 1,900,000 you can have a silk interior."

"Fuck", Mako laughed.

"Also I'd like to point out to be fair to C-Aircraft", I said, "a lot of the options I checked are actual functional things. It's not so much leather interiors as it is high flow fuel systems, carbon fiber propellers and high grade shafts for the engine and they do make planes that we could afford to option out if we saved money for a few years. They even have an Automotive branch called C-Performance Off Road which makes some really cool, purely mechanical trucks and cars that are off road only."

"I'll have to look into that", Nina said managing to return from her chocking fest.

"Why?", Riley asked, "you already own a race car."

"Yeah, seriously", Trace said quietly.

"You know that my corvette is a second hand race car right?", Nina asked, "it's old and worn out from racing the R2 24 hours of Leman's so much. It needs a full power train rebuild and that's something I just don't want to do."

"Nina why would you ditch your Vette?", I asked, "it makes the best idle noise ever, a close second to my Dad's 240."

Nina yawned and leaned back, "because I don't feel like doing it. Don't get me wrong, it will rip a hole in my soul when it leaves and I'll never love another car like it again, but it would just be too much money and work to rebuild it and keep it's spirit alive."

I leaned back as well, still tired myself, "I'll rebuild it for you then."

"Good luck", Nina said falling back to sleep. One, by one, my friends fell off, I figure we were about an hour or so into the flight when I pulled my poncho liner out of my pack and set it on my assault pack. I was about to get to sleep when the 260's 155 gunner walked into the room, taking care to step over the wings and tails of those of us who were asleep on the floor and not lose his balance.

"Hey", I said, "how long till we hit Iraq?"

"Thirteen and a half hours", he said.

I yawned, "well if there's one thing I'm good at it's killing time."

I closed my eyes and lay back, falling asleep a few minutes later.

It must have been the entity of 13 hours later that Mercury woke me up.

"Hmm?", I asked yawning.

"Wake up Ace", Mercury said, "were approaching your jump point."

"Already?", I asked sitting up.

"It's been 13 hours", Mercury said.

"Damn", I said standing up. I walked to the cargo bay and found the others getting ready. I grabbed my vest from my duffle and threw it over my shoulder. I tossed my M-220 on my back in favor of my 20 combat rifle, grabbed the 9100, the four tanks of gas I had brought with me and walked to the cargo bay where the jump master was waiting for us.

"Have you guys jumped from planes before!?", he asked as the hatch went down, revealing a bright sky, damn time zones.

"Yes sir", I shouted over the wind, "we had a jump week in Basic and AIT."

"Then you know what to do!", he shouted as I reached into my vest for my sunglasses.

I walked to the hatch of the plane, standing by Nina.

"Hey Ace", Jayden said, "20 bucks says I kill more mercs than you."

I charged my S-20, "make it a hundred and your on."

"Deal", Jayden said.

"Hey Ace", mercury said turning me around.

"What's up!?", I asked over the wind.

"20 seconds to jump!", the master said.

"Make it quick!", I said looking at Mercury.

"Come back alive brother", he said, "I can't run the project without you."

Mercury and I hugged as the light turned green and my team jumped, "you know I will!", I said saluting him as I fell backwards out of the plane, flipping around and going into a fast dive to catch up with my team, who were doing stupid shit like acting like they were sitting on a couch reading news papers. We were falling way to fast to shout to each other, so it was all I could do to act like I was sitting down drinking tea like some British dude. About 500 feet from the ground, we opened our wings to slow our descent. When we touched down, it was on the side of a hill. Just out in the distance, I could see the Black River Compound.

"I can see our target from here", I said.

"How far is it?", Nina asked sticking a shell into her M203.

"About a 2 mile walk it would seem", I said, "we could fly it in a half a minute, but someone could see us, so I think we should huff it."

"Then lets get going", Mako said, "we should keep as far into the hilly terrain as we can to avoid scouts, at least that way if we run into them we can open up on them with suppressed weapons and the hills eat most of the sound."

"Sounds like a legit plan", I said, "I'll take point, Nina you bring up the rear, Jayden in the middle with Arnett and Mako protecting him, let's move."

We marched through the hills in single file formation for about an hour before we were within 1500 yards from the compound, that was when I gave the order to halt.

"Hold up", I said holding up my fist and crouching.

"What's up Ace?", Jayden asked.

"Here's where we split up", I said, "radio's only, channel 3 on 35 hertz, that signal will be nearly impossible to pick up. Find a spot with good cover and concealment that you would be willing to hide for a few weeks with a good view of the compound. A water source is preferable, but this Iraq, so don't discount a spot without water."

"Gotcha", Nina said.

On that, we split up in an asterisk pattern. I went straight ahead, Jayden and Mako went to my sides while Nina and Arnett went back towards the jump point. Ideally, I was looking for a few hundred square feet of space, with a sandy floor, stone walls, a sniper spot, a cave for cooking, shelter and cleaning with a reliable source of fresh water. I was pretty sure the fresh water wasn't going to happen, but the others were almost mandatory. I looked in every divot and crater in the ground that I found, ultimately turning up nothing.

"I wish real life was like Minecraft, I would just mine the area we needed and add 4 buckets of water", I said to myself climbing over a fairly large boulder, dropping into a pit that was about four feet deep. It wasn't any where close to the ideal shelter spot, but I was certain that a sniper rifle right here would be undetectable, since the sun was to our backs and arced behind us, meaning no one would ever see sun glare from our scopes. I made a mental note of the area and started climbing back out when Jayden called me over the radio.

"Hey Ace", he said, "you there?"

"Yeah", I said, "go ahead."

"I found a pretty decent spot about 50 yards up range from where you are", he answered, "I can see you climbing out of that hole from where I am."

I looked around and spotted Jayden waving at me from a few hundred feet away. I walked up to him.

"What you find brother?", I asked.

"A cave that goes about 50 feet back into the mountain and then makes a sharp turn, ending in a dead end. The best thing is that there's a natural spring that wells up near the back."

Jayden went inside the cave and I followed him. It was about 8 feet high and went about 50 feet back before it curved and went another 20 feet, ending in a puddle that was welling up from an unseen source, it would be more than big enough to house us for the few days this mission was likely to last.

"Okay", I said nodding, "this spot is perfect. Start setting up and I'll radio the others."

"Gotcha", Jayden said dropping his assault pack.

I stepped out of the cave so the radio signal wouldn't garble and then opened up my coms to Nina.

"Nina", I said, "you copy?"

"Copy Ace", Nina said, "what's up?"

"Jayden and I found the spot", I said, "I'm going to leave my Poncho liner spread out on a rock 50 yards from the cave, when you find it, look around for my 220 and that's where we are."

"Rodger that", Nina said, "I'll round up the others and find you, out."

I left my 220 leaning against the cave entrance with my assault pack and walked back to the rock with my liner. I spread it out and then walked back to the cave. As I was entering, I saw something in the distance. It appeared to be a convoy consisting of six vehicles. From what I could see, which wasn't much from the damn dome being close to a mile away, there was a tank, two hummers, a troop truck and a blacked out deuce that was blowing black smoke. The problem was, while my hearing far exceeded my sight, mostly due to the way the sun was reflecting off the sand, I could only confirm five vehicles, 2 gasoline engines and 3 diesel. I could smell the burning fuel from where I was because of the wind drift, but it was seeing and smelling six, but only hearing five that was causing me to step back and go, "the fuck?"

"Jayden", I called into the cave, "did you bring the 20mm?"

"Just the receiver and scope like I was issued", Jayden said.

I grabbed the heavy barrel from my pack, "I can work with that, bring it here, bring your nods too."

Jayden put down whatever it was he was doing in the cave and brought me his binoculars as well as the receiver assembly for the Chy Tech 20mm S-70 Ultra, or Big Boy rifle as we had taken to calling it. In all honesty, I'd rather the Barrett over a 20mm, but hadn't thought of it before we left, so was stuck with it. I screwed the barrel to the receiver, stuck my magazine of 4 rounds into it and peered through the scope, focusing on the black deuce. Now that I was looking right at it, I could see that it was a long bed cab over deuce, the kind they made to haul heavy, heavy stuff. The exhaust pipe had clearly been turned into one giant muffler. I could also see a blacked out ROTS blower sticking out of the hood, which I guessed was there more to clean up the exhaust than to add power, though if that was the case it wasn't doing a very good job. Another thing I didn't fail to notice about the deuce was that there was a giant box on the back that was covered in a black tarp. It was held in place by two giant chains and four thick as hell nylon straps. What ever was under that tarp, was worth keeping secure. It must have been heavy as fuck because through the scope, I could make out the white letters above the yellow and red shocks that read, "Magnetic Ride Shock, 33,000 pounds pressure, stay back 45 feet and seemed to be assisted by two separate coil over suspension systems. Given the size of the shocks and springs, I doubt it was out of the ball park to say 3-6 tones each was what they could bear on their own. With all that pressure in the rear, why the fuck was the front end of this truck sitting higher than the rear? There had to be at least 7 inches between front and rear ride height and the rear wheels looked like they were just giant pieces of plate steel with rubber attacked to them. Another thing that lead me to wonder what they had on this truck was the rear differential, or to car guys, the rear end. Given the sag of the rear end and three independent suspension systems, how thick must the axle be to drive all four rear wheels without snapping? I could see the dirveline, which on a truck that long is two pieces, was one solid shaft. Taking all of this into account, the suspension in the rear, plus what that lead me to believe about the drive train, put the engine having to make quite a bit of torque to move this monster of a rear end around under load, which it was. But how? How do you make the several thousand pounds of torque I was estimating this thing had to have, run coal, a supercharger and such a big transmission, completely silent?

"Whatever that is I want it", I thought to myself, 'if it's important to them it's twice as important to me."

"Ace", Nina called, 'were on your six."

I turned around and saw Nina coming quickly, my liner in her paw with the other little kids in tow.

"Give me your parts for the 20", I said.

"Why for?", Leanna asked tilting her head.

"I see something going on down at the dome", I said, "I wanna watch them and beable to fire upon them if the need arises."

Arnett, Mako and Leanna dropped their assault packs, handed me their parts and went inside to help.

"What do you see exactly?", Nina asked handing me some of her 20mm Ammunition.

"Not too sure", I answered, "I saw through the scope what looked like a deuce that had been modified to do one thing, haul a lot of heavy things a really long ways. The rear wheels are just hunks of steel with rubber glued onto them and the springs in the rear are magnetic ride control on each wheel are assisted by two sets of giant shocks and coil over springs, not to mention what has to be the highest rear end a 6.3 diesel has ever seen."

"Let me have a look", Nina said.

I handed her the bino's, "here."

Nina peered through them.

"Hmm", she said, "that's some gnarly suspension, I figure for all that to sag a full 7 inches it must be under something heavy."

"I know", I said, observing as men in very heavy, black body armor came out to meet them. The armor looked more like a space suit that body armor, truth be told and it came complete with a helmet with a giant piece of glass for a visor. It was strapped with MOLLE webbing, ammunition pouches and an assault pack though, which threw me off. Air conditioned maybe?

"Hey Ace", Nina said, "what you make of those guys in black down there?"

"Not sure", I said, "air conditioned armor?"

"In the desert, that does make sense", she said, "but..."

"But what?", I asked.

"Hang on", she said getting up and running into the cave. About a minute or so later, Mako came out and jumped on the binos.

"Where are the guys in the armor?", he asked

"By the black deuce", I said watching as a Maxim crane came out and lifted the box off the deuce. I watched a man in a very tight black outfit exit the truck, hand something to a man there, who seemed to be signing off that what ever was in the truck had reached it's destination. As the box lifted up off the deuce, we could hear the sounds of the suspension decompressing, a screech that filled the air so thoroughly that someone in the UK might hear it.

"Fuck that's loud", I said holding my paws over my ears.

"yeah", Mako said, "by the way Ace, I think that might be an exo skeleton those guys are wearing."

"Like from call of duty advanced warfare?", I asked.

"Yeah", Mako said, "they've been in development for a long time, mostly to help soldiers carry their gear for longer distances with less effort. My guess is that's what they've got on and what were seeing is just armor that fits over it."

"Okay", I said, "so that's just fancy body armor, but what about what's in that heavy ass box?"

"Uranium? Plutonium?", Mako asked.

"My thoughts exactly", I said as I watched the truck drive into the base, "we need to get down there and reconnoiter that dome."

I looked up, the sun was saying 5 in the afternoon.

"Not tonight though", I said, "come on, let's help the others finish setting up."

Taking one last glance at the dome, I walked with Mako into the cave. Finishing the set up of our Fob, or forward operating base took all of two hours, even with all five of us. By the time we were done, it was dark out. Nina grabbed a lantern out of her pack and turned it on the dimmest setting.

"Well that's finally done", I sighed rolling into my sleeping bag, which I had set in a hole.

"I know", Nina yawned, "so, who gets to be the first one to use the solar shower?"

"I'll go", I said grabbing a spare set of fatigues, grabbing my S-20 as well, just to be safe. I walked around to the back of the cave where I found a black water bladder hanging from the cave wall. I set my rifle down, unbuttoned my jacket and was just about to take my shirt off when a smell rank with all the power of a million rotting armadillos smacked me over the face.

"What the fuck is that?", I gagged turning around, though I didn't see anything. I did hear something though, what sounded like the clicking of small claws on rock, like the my grandma's dog made on their hardwood floors, along with a low, snake like growl.

I slowly reached for my S-20, bringing it up to my shoulder. Slowly and quietly, walking in it's direction. The next thing I knew, I was pinned on my back, starring into a green, scaled face and eight, soulless black eyes. The...thing on top of me was drooling some very thick spit and had a jaw that broke away in four different places, revealing a mouth lined with sharp looking black teeth. And let me tell you....this thing seemed awfully hungry.

Next thing I knew it lunged at me, trying to bite my face off. As terrifying as it was, I managed to keep my cool and give it back just as much ferocity as it gave me. I didn't have boots on, so I extended the claws on my toes and slashed as hard as I could across it's stomach, kicking it off of me with surprisingly little difficulty, though admittedly, I didn't leave too big a gash and what little gash I did leave was already closing.

I now had a good look at the thing. It was about 8 feet tall, 36 feet long and had some kind of green bone covering it's body with spikes going down it's back, neck and tail. It also had spikes coming out it's head with no vsible ears along with a nasty looking blade on it's tail. It also had a bar code seared into it's face. Heh, so that's what was in that truck.

Next thing I knew I was on my back again, trying to get the thing off me when Nina and the others came around the corner, guns drawn.

"Don't just stand there!", I shouted, "shoot this fucker!"

Nina and the others opened up on it, emptying their weapons into it, which did next to nothing.

"I'm gonna get the 20mm", Jayden said disappearing around the corner. He quickly came back with the giant rifle and dropped prone, letting off a suppressed round witch knocked it off me for about 4 seconds, not even giving me time to get up.

"The 9100!", I squeaked, "someone get the 9100!"'

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nina run around the corner, quickly coming back with the lit flamethrower. She got as close to the beast as she could and then hosed it. The thing caught on fire instantly and started letting off low growls while it squirmed around on the ground.

"Give me that!", I snarled taking the flamer from Nina and emptying the tank on the abomination, going until nothing was left but but a red glowing ember.

I dropped the empty weapon, sitting down against Nina, my entire body shaking from fear and exhaustion, my heart beating so fast that Leanna went inside soaked a rag in the cold water from the spring and then put it over my neck to cool off the blood flow to my brain and get my pulse down. I watched the remnants of the creature completely disintegrate into nothing but ashes.

For the longest time, we just sat there, each of us silent, until Jayden spoke up

"What....what was that thing?", he asked.

"I have...", I said, "no...idea. I've never seen anything like it, it was like a...some kind of..rabid spider? I don't know, but fuck me it was scary. I'm just happy it's dead."

"Where did it come from?", Nina asked.

I looked at the dome, "I have a pretty good idea."

Another quiet period descended on my team until Mako spoke up.

"What do you wanna do Ace?", he asked.

"Get your gear", I said, "were going down to the dome."