The next few days just showed how little social contact I'd had in the past few years. I'd always known that sometimes people would get friends that they really liked and wouldn't trade for the world, but, they were the kind of person that you just....didn't wanna bring around your parents or family because of the way they acted around you. Void ended up being that friend. I showed him and Navi around the base over the course of the three days before we were going after the convoy and ended up getting to like him when I learned that he was pretty much a bigger smaller version of us with 4 legs. My parents had left the day before the operation, which I was glad for because I really, really didn't want them to meet Void. I could just see trouble with a capital T written all over that shit. Now if you don't mind me ranting on for a while longer, seriously, the fuck is going on with Minecraft right now? 1.9.0 has been out for a few months now and I'm stuck way the hell back here in 1.8.9 because Mojang decided, "hey, lets ruin texture packs for people." And yeah, I hate the default textures for Minecraft, they make my eyes hurt. I had a 256 pixel realistic resource pack running to fix that, but then when 1.9 came out I went against my gut and made the stupid mistake of "upgrading". I fell in love with what they added, however, something they've done to the resource pack formula has rendered the textures I had for stone, wood and clay invalid, just showing up as a black and purple checkerboard. It wouldn't even be so bad if it was limited to just say, stone or cobblestone. No it's fucking EVERYTHING. Everything shows up as that stupid checkerboard. What the fuck Mojang? Fix it!

Now, with that out of the way, over the course of the three days before we left for the operation, I mostly hung out in the barracks bingeing on Minecraft (Even though I hate the lack of realistic textures, still love Minecraft) and when I wasn't doing that, I was out in the Supra or practicing with void, since he ended up on my Team and Navi ended up with Mercury. I wanted to see what it was that Black River had stuck in their heads in the time that they had trained with them. Turns out it was quite a bit. Void seemed to know a lot about breaching doors, stealth combat and even explosives and how to defuse bombs He had a knack for knowing right when to toss the grenade or flash bang though the way his fingers were designed made it just a little bit challenging, but in time, he mastered it, or just where on the doorway to set the C4 for the maximum effect on the other side. Another cool thing about Void and his sister was that their front legs were placed just right and just long enough that they could use a rifle when they were on their stomachs. His short neck didn't get in the way of an optic either, so long as it was placed just right. During training, I stressed to both of them not to even consider pulling out their rifles unless they were with one of us because getting them off their vests were cumbersome and a little tricky when they were by themselves. Unlike us, they couldn't reach back to grab their guns off their backs, the way the joints in their front legs were designed made it impossible to reach up and behind them. That was the problem for most of the day until I got a rivet gun and moved their straps down to their sides, which made it easier to the point where I could actually see they were having less trouble. Another interesting part was the firearms they actually chose to carry with them.

Void was using a decked out S22 Combat Rifle with an Aimpoint Comp M4S, Magpul UBR stock, magazine and pistol grip with a 20 inch barrel and a compensator as opposed to the barrel shroud the rest of us used and a Bi pod so he could work it without too much effort on his part.

Navi on the other hand was using a S30 .308 with the same compensator as her brother, SOCOM stock, Trijjicon ACOG scope and the standard hand rail.

Both Void and Navi were quite good at hitting the dirt and pulling out their rifles when the situation called for it, though it looked a little awkward. And I swear to you the only bad memory Void and his sister are going to have of Area 29 was the physical. I didn't tell them the day before the op that they needed to get one and when it finally crossed my mind it was rather late in the day. At first, they were okay with it. Then when they walked out about an hour later, the looks on their faces said it all. They felt invaded, and maybe I'm just a shitlord, but I found it hysterical.

"May no other endure the horrors within that room", Void said.

He didn't speak to anyone the rest of the day and neither did Navi. Also during those four days the Prof finished the machines that would help Void and Navi out with the nitrogen levels in their blood. To me, all it looked like was a small blue box with a copper tube and a white wire leading into more blue plastic and some kind of ceramic looking compound. Green explained to me that it wasn't really anything more than a fancy air filter and an Iv stuck together, but I zoned out and didn't catch it all.

With everyone ready at the end of the third day, we loaded up on the winterized oil, heavy clothes, metal magazines to counteract the possibility of our plastic ones shattering and got on the 260 headed for Siberia. It was a 16 hour flight and there wasn't anything to do but rest, so that's what we did. The first time we woke up was to change from the 260 to a Chinook once we landed in Great Britain, then the second time a few hours later was when we were in Russia. I could tell that it was storming outside because of the way the wind was howling and due to the fact that I was cold as all hell.

"You venom kids are fucking crazy", the pilot John said.

"It's what we signed on for", Riley smiled grabbing his rifle.

'Amen", Void said.

"You sure you guys are feeling okay?", I asked setting my vest over my field coat, "you can go home of your not sure."

"I'm fine Ace", Void said, "I'm going to make Black River regret not roasting me with our parents."

"Outstanding", I said putting my gloves on and grabbing my 220, "alright listen up", I shouted over the wind, "the mission here is to wreck Black River's convoy as quickly and quietly as possible. We get anything of importance and burn the rest. Whose got the flamethrower?"

"I do", Trace said.

"Fantastic", I said grabbing my S220 and loading a belt into it.

"50 seconds to drop zone", the jump master said, "you kids got everything?"

"yes sir", I said.

"Outstanding", he said, "good luck."

The jump Master was headed to the front of the Chinook when out of the corner of my eye, I saw what I thought looked like a laser pointer. When I put the scope on that general area, I saw six men, three of them had M60 machine guns while the other three were on a DHISKA machine gun. Not good!

"DHISKA EMPLACEMENT!", I shouted, "hit the dirt!"

Everyone ducked down to the floor as the huge rounds started tearing through the Chinook's hull like it was paper. The copter began to spin out of control as one of the rounds went through one of the Turboshaft engines that powered the propellers. When I glanced back, John was the only one who was alive, the Co pliot and the Jump master were both dead.

"I can't hold on to this fucker!", he grunted trying to fight the power lose, "you need to jump now!"

"We can't jump now!", I shouted over the hail of gunfire, "that DHISKA will rip us apart just like the helo!"

"One way or the other where going down!", John said trying to swerve the Chinook behind a mountain as a second bullet tore through the remaining engine.

"Fuck!", John shouted, "lost all power! Here's hopping those electric motors work."

John played with a few switches as the helo spun behind a mountain. After a few seconds, we were stable, hovering.

"holy hell", John said as he set the chopper to auto hover, "I didn't think that would work."

"Is everyone okay?", I asked as I rose from the floor, finding a had a fairly large piece of shrapnel poking through my tail.

"Everyone but you", Nina said as I pulled the piece of metal from my tail, hissing at the pain.

"I'll be fine", I said, "it should close quickly. John, you said something about electric motors?"

"4 of them turning each propeller", John said, "we got enough battery power to hover for 20 minutes or go about 50 miles back towards the base and try and track the convoy with drones, what do you wanna do Ace?"

"I'm not leaving that DHISKA where it sits", I said, "look, it turned our Chinook into a sponge, we leave it, someone else is going to get shredded by it. Drop me off and I'll take care of it, the rest of you head for the convoy."

Nina pulled me into a kiss, "stay safe love. I'll keep you updated."

"I will", I said jumping out of the back of the Chinook, flaring my wings to lessen the impact of the fall. Once I was on the ground, the Chinook quietly flew out of sight, the electric motors barely making any noise, rendering it almost undetectable.

"All right", I said swapping my LMG for my personal AR, which was now sporting a suppressor, "let's kill a DHISKA."

I started climbing up the mountain that John had landed behind. The air up here was pretty close to the same as Area 29, so it didn't take me long to adjust. I climbed about 30 feet before I slid down a slope and ended up in a small clearing between a couple of fallen trees. I could hear a couple of foot soldiers on the approach, so I opted to lay low until I could get eyes on.

"Disciple Six radio check", a man said.

"Rodger that Disciple Five", a female's voice replied, 'what do you have?"

"Be advised our DHISKA emplacement engaged a second US Military helicopter", he said, "it seems to have gone down, but we can't say with 100 percent certainty, we need eyes over the possible crash location, Operational Area grid through the XYZ lower grid coordinates and JKL on the upper, how copy?"

"Rodger that Disciple 5", the woman replied, "chopping a predator drone with a full AGM load out, stand by."

"Wilco", the man said as his group passed right in front of me.

"Second US Military helo?", I asked to myself, "great, wonder where the first guys went down, after I take out the DHISKA I'll have to find them."

As I crawled out of the bush, I opened up the coms to Nina, 'Nina, I said, "be advised, I just tacked another objective to my solo mission."

"Why?", she asked.

"It seems we weren't the only ones to get attacked by that DHISKA", I told her, "I just over heard radio chatter about how we were the second, I'm going to dig around and see if I can find out if the first ones got away."

"Okay", Nina said, "just stay safe."

I closed my radio and darted across the clearing, climbing up another mountain for about 20 feet before I came to another clearing. From where I was, I could see the emplacement, about 1000 yards out. Between here and there was a lot of forest and boulders, perfect cover to approach the gun. I ran into the forest , darting from boulder to boulder and constantly checking my six, making sure no one was going to sneak up behind me. I was moving to a pile of rocks as my next cover point when I saw the tell tale six dot ring of Night vision goggles. One of the benefits about my eyes, goggles gave your position away to me just as much as a flash light would. I dove prone behind the rocks, bashing my knee on one of them as I did. I tried hard to stifle a yelp, but a small one did manage to escape my jaws.

The second that happened, I made myself as quiet as I could, trying hard not to even breathe. When I poked my head up, I saw the man had shifted his focus to my pile of stones. The way he was moving, however, made me think he had either a leg injury or was just getting a little too cold for comfort. Either way, I could tell if I could get close and force a hand to hand engagement that he'd lose. I picked up a rock and chucked it out from the boulders, it landed with a thud on a tree right behind him. The man, startled, turned around and began to inspect the area around the trees, picking up the rock as I bolted out from behind cover and body slammed him with everything I had, sending him flying, only stopping when he slammed into a tree, knocking his goggles off as well.

I walked over to him, put my boot on his neck and pulled my Desert Eagle out of it's holster, charging it and sticking it to his head, ripping his radio off his shoulder so he couldn't call for help.

"Your night vision gave you away you prick", I snarled, "humans can't see it, but unfortunately for you, I ain't human. Now I'm gonna ask you one thing and you are gonna answer that thing in a way that I find satisfactory and if you do not I will put a bullet in your head and then ghost your buddies until I find out what I want. Now, where did the US Army helo go down? The first one you and your friends shot at!?"

The man just laughed, "why are you asking me the questions you already know the answer to?"

The sound of his voice tripped my What the fuck alarm because now I knew exactly who this man was.

"Tristan!?", I asked lowering my handgun and letting him up, "what the actual fuck!?"

Tristan rolled onto his back, showing me a somewhat burnt, bloody face. He was smiling as well, for some unknown reason.

'Josh?", he asked as I helped him up, "the fuck happened to you?"

"Lots' of shit", I said, "where's the rest of your unit?"

Tristan sighed, "dead, dismembered, blown up, burnt."

"That fuckin sucks", I sighed, "looks like we got lucky."

"Where's the rest of your team brother?", Tristan asked.

"I can't tell you", I said, "but what you can tell me is what the hell your doing out here."

Tristan sighed, clearly not trusting me.

"We were told to come up here and clear out a bunch of punks that were taking pot shots at our planes with a DHISKA, we get here and find out that we got five or six guys manning a well dug in and supplied AA battery that looks like the Army put it there....", Tristan said, "please Josh, the fuck is going on here and what the hell happened to you!?"

I sighed, "I will tell you if you can look me in the eye if you can promise me what I say never passes your lips."

Tristan looked me in the eyes and said, "I promise."

"Okay", I said, "I'm a recruit into a private military project called Project Venom. The project was built to utilize a missing gene strand in humans...rendering them dragons."

I saw the look on Tristan's face change, he couldn't believe what I was saying.

"Wow", he sighed, "I thought we were Sci Fi writers?"

"So did I", I said, "according to Morningstar, the man who recruited me, they thought we had spies in the project. But anyway. You said the DHISKA looks like the Army put it there?"

He nodded, "yeah, guys in American uniforms...."

"I wish I could tell you that it was an army emplacement", I said, "but it aint. It belongs to a particularly nasty PMC group known as Black River. We'd be here for hours if I tried to explain it, so for now, all you need to know is the mother fuckers are up to no good and it needs to stop, quickly. I'm going up that hill to wreck that DHISKA and if you wanna tag along you can, but you do what I say when I say it understand?"

"I'm not exactly combat efficient right now brother", Tristan said, "my leg is shattered."

"You were walking on it a minute ago", I said reaching into my vest for a shot of Morphine 88, extra powerful stuff meant for dragons.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like a bitch", Tristan said.

"Take this nigga", I said handing it to him, 'shoot it right in your leg."

"What is it?", he asked taking the syringe.

"Morphine 88", I said, "a super powerful version. Trust me, the shit works."

Tristan shot his leg with the 88 and I saw his face loosen up.

"Holy hell", He said.

"Now come on", I said, "just remember it's broken, so lean on your un broken one as much as you can."

He nodded and we started up the cliff, ducking behind the rocks and trees as I opened up the coms to Nina, ordering Tristan to halt and cover our flank.

'Nina", I said opening the coms, "I got the only survivor from the crash, moving on the DHISKA now, how's your end of things."

When Nina came back, I could hear gunfire, lots of it, "not too good! They got a damn tank! Were gonna get overrun! We are out numbered, out gunned and their flanking us! Hurry up and take out that DHISKA!"

"I'm on my way", I said switching the channel, "Tomahawk 2-2, this is Shadow 2-2, are you in the area!?"

"Rodger that", Hawk's voice answered, "what ya need kid?"

"Nina and the others are pinned down by a tank on the convoy assault point", I said, "they need heavy support or their gonna get overrun."

"I'm aware", she answered, "en route now, you got five minutes to take out that DHISKA before John shows up for your EVAC."

"Consider it done", I growled cutting off the coms.

"Nina?", Tristan asked, "whose she?"

"My girlfriend", I said standing and continuing up the hill.

"And let me guess", Tristan said sarcastically, "the name you picked in the project is...."

"Ace", I said.

"What?", Tristan asked, "she's way to fuckin old for Ace."

"Oh shut it fucktard", I said, "I'm 19 and she's 18, not that much of a difference."

Tristan laughed, but didn't say anything else.

We continued up the hill, eventually making our way up to a pile of boulders that allowed us good cover and concealment along with a great view of the DHISKA itself. There were about six men manning it. They weren't reborn and were packing mostly G3's, but some had M60's as back ups.

"This should be fun", I said as I pulled the boxes out of my vest and took the ammo out of it, "put these belts together."

Tristan began putting the belts together while I took the tripod out of my vest and set it up on the rocks. I locked the gun in place and sighted in the DSHIKA.

"This is for Taro's team", I growled as I flipped the gun to Ludicrous mode and pulled the trigger. The gun ripped into the DISHKA like a hot chainsaw through melted butter. It only took me 30 seconds to eat through 664 rounds and shred the emplacement and the six men guarding it like it wasn't even there.

"Get a fuckin charge on that gun", I said handing Taro a thermite grenade and some C4 as I opened up the coms to John.

"John Hawk said you were on your way, the DHISKA is no longer a threat."

"Great job Ace", John said, "I'm inbound on an Electric Chinook, ETA in 20 seconds."

"And so I said the day was amazing", Taro shouted as the DISHKA went up in flames.

"Good job", I said, "Taro, my buddy is inbound on an electric Chinook, so pop a flare and keep an eye out because we won't hear him coming."

"An Electric Chinook?", Tristan asked, "that's a thing?"

"Apparently", I said.

Taro popped a flare and the two of us waited for about a minute before John landed. We boarded as quickly as we could and then John flew us to the hundred yard long trail of flaming vehicles that was still rife with gunfire. \

"John", Hawk called, "get out of the way, coming around for a strafing run."

John moved the Chinook out of the way as Hawk came in, strafing the burning mass and causing one more explosion.

"Nina that's all I can do", Hawk said, "I'm out of ammunition."

"Rodger that", Nina said, "we got it from here."

"Taro get on that gun", I said as John dropped the hatch.

Tristan got onto the Machine gun on the hatch as we landed. I walked out and meant Nina and the others, who looked beat to shit.

"The fuck happened here?", I asked.

"They took us by surprise", Navi panted, "we fought them off easily enough at first, then the tank showed up. They put up a smoke screen with it and when it settled, Mercury and trace were missing."

I gritted my teeth, punching the burning truck next to me so hard I dented it. My friends stayed silent for the longest time before I opened up the coms to Morningstar.

"Alex", I said, 'convoy is fucking secure...but I have bad news.

"What is it Ace?"

"Mercury and trace have been kidnapped."