I didn't want to waste anytime in leaving for Africa. It wasn't because I actually wanted to go on the mission, more feeling like absolute shit that my teammates got the short end of the stick, where as I got of easy. It wasn't even a sort of "I feel sorry for myself", more so it was a, "how come it affected them so seriously, but barely knocked me out?", Kind of feeling.

"Stop laying the guilt on yourself", my Dad told me as we geared up. My Dad had been given a Venom uniform, but he used his own vest, drop pouches and gun along with a beanie hat, "you didn't have any control over it son."

"I know, I know", I said, "It's not guilt so much as it as gnawing, why? For the life of me I can't figure out why the worst it seems to have done to me is knock me out."

"Something in your DNA?", Mercury asked, "look at me, it didn't do shit to me but get me high."

"And see fire", John said, "don't forget about that."

"But it was still a result of getting high as a kite", Mercury said grabbing his secondary weapon, a Venom project modified Mini 14 that was desert tan, his M220 wouldn't blend in well, being white and all.

"So it was spewing cocaine into the air?", Vortex asked as she pulled a heavily modified Barrett XPR 338 off the rack of her armory cell.

"Green said it was some weird ass powdered spider venom or shit like that" Mercury said, "I don't know, I'm 11, cut me some slack."

"11?", Austin asked as he sheathed two wicked looking, serrated long swords and picked up a Sg334, Venom's go to shotgun, with an EoTech sight, "that's kinda fucked up. Who sends an 11 year old to war?"

"He didn't send me", Mercury said, "I chose to join, so did everyone else."

"Fair enough", Austin said.

The fly into Africa was done on John's Chinook, as had all of our flights. It was deadly boring for me, as there wasn't the sound of the Rotary Turbines the Hybrid had, so I spent most of the 5 hour fly half asleep. It wasn't as bad as it would have been without AC, so I was at least thankful. On the other end of the flight path, the forward operating team, lead by a man named Allen, had set up a three tent base. One big one I assumed was the command center, the other appeared to be the garage and armory and the third was the mess hall and barracks. Everything was neat and organized, but best of all well hidden and thermally shielded. Allen was waiting on a makeshift landing pad with breakfast, a familiar pair of Nissan's that had had a lot of work done since the last time we were in this part of the world and a weird ass dune buggy strapped with ammo crates, duffle bags, weapon attachments, what have you, but I didn't see any place to drive it.

"What's going on with the dune buggy over there?", I asked as I bit into a piece of chicken.

"It's a Mk 1 Mule supply unit", Allen said, "Morningstar and your friend Carlos radioed ahead with some new intel and in light of this, I feel it will be essential. In the coming weeks."

"Weeks?", I asked.

"Come", Allen said, "I'll give you all the details."

I followed Allen into the tent where he had a map laid out. The map covered some 40 square miles and ended at the coast. It was dotted with all kinds of small little structures and a couple large ones, particularly at the coast. Most of the small structures were marked in either yellow or orange, while the large ones were almost all red with some green around them.

"This map dropped in by Sat Capsule minutes before you arrived", Allen said, "the small structures you see are tribal villages, marked in either yellow, to indicate low militia presence, or orange to denote high. The main one I'm concerned about is about a ten minute drive from here."

He pointed to a village marked in yellow a short distance away from where we were, marked in blue.

"The militia presence here isn't high, but Black River presence is", Allen said, "the two factions seemed to have formed an alliance for the time being and the village in question seems to be a small camp where containers are processed before being shipped to the coast."

"Wait", Void said, "I thought the crates were coming from the coast, not going to?"

"That's what I thought at first as well", Allen said, "however, an SR-71 blackbird we have in the area confirmed that the ships are taking the crates out of Africa, but their not sure where. Now, this camp is also protected by a 155mm cliff gun about a mile west of it, before we can move on this camp, the artillery support has got to die. Also, were gonna put the Mule Supply unit you saw outside on the ground, it will have some goodies in it to help you take the rebel camp, but there's a hitch, Black River troops are approaching the drop zone. The mule carries no weapons, so it's vulnerable. Take out those damn Reborns before John makes the drop, and I mean pronto. Also, take this."

Allen handed me, as well as the rest of my team, a set of thick, but cool looking metal framed sunglasses that even had a light built in.

"The hell are these?", Rachel asked.

"We call it the Tactical Visor Allen said, "Mako was working on them in his spare time, their still prototypes, but they work very well and they can talk to the Mules Autonomous software, you'll beable to tell it where to go and what to do, you can even paint a path for it to follow if it can't find a viable one. Also, Ace, your model is capable of tagging enemies with specific colors, each color corresponds to one of your teammates, letting them know who to kill and where to go, the color designation for everyone to follow that command is light orange, otherwise, all you have to do is look at an enemy, call out the name of the teammate and say "focus your fire."

"Sweet", Vortex said, "sounds like an awesome piece of tech."

"It also comes loaded with an Assessment Mode that everyone can access at anytime", Allen said, "with it, you can tag enemies, weapons, ammunition, fuel, explosives, tactical opportunities, IE, sniper towers, flank routes, vehicles, stealth take downs, what have you", Allen said, "the technology is loosely based off the Land Warrior system, but Mako was able to refine it to the point where it all fits in a pair of glasses."

"Sounds like a piece of tech I'm gonna get some serious use out of", I said, "but is their anyway to attach it to my helmet? The glasses are rather weighty."

"You think so?", Rachel asked, "I don't."

"Me either", Austin said, "in fact, they fit rather nicely."

"Then maybe it's just me", I said, "now, who ever here can drive stick, paw in the air."

Mine, Mercury, Calen and my Dad's were the ones that went up.

"Hunter, Taro", I said, "paws up, I know you can do it."

"Been too long brother", Taro said, "I'd stall it out on every shift."

"What about you?", I asked looking at Hunter, "what's your excuse?"

Hunter shrugged, "Hunter can drive stick shift, but I'm really, really bad at it."

I sighed.

"That's a problem", Allen said, "the Nissan's and the Jeeps I have here are manual transmissions only."

"Then we'll have to fit as many people on two jeeps as possible", Calen said, "I'll take Hunter, Rachel, Navi and Austin and maybe I can shut down those guns."

"Then I'll take Mercury, Vortex ,Taro, Void and my old man, clear the Mule's drop zone and get into position at the camp, I said, "let's get going."

With that, we grabbed our equipment and walked out to the Jeeps. They were two, kitted out, tri color desert Wranglers with four seats and a bed with a mounted mini gun. They were sitting on tall, fat tires with wide body fenders, deer guards and large flood lights. They had Recaro bucket seats, six point harnesses, what appeared to be full time All wheel drive and 7 speed manuals. They looked new, but I could tell the way the suspension creaked under our weight that they were old jeeps.

"Mini gun", My Dad said climbing up onto it, "hell yeah."

"Have you seen combat before Sargent Miller?", Taro asked climbing into the rear passenger seat.

"Yep", My Dad said, "can't tell you where though."

"I understand", Taro said as Vortex climbed into next to him and Mercury into the passenger's seat.

I buckled up the harness, put the jeep in gear and turned the key, bringing what had to be the same V6 I had in the Civic to life.

"Sounds like your Honda", Vortex noted as I revved the engine.

"It's the same engine", I said, "the 610 version. At least we have a good amount of torque to play with."

I let my foot off the clutch and away we went, relying on the line the Tactical Visor had drawn in the sand to glide me. It was about two minutes into the drive that I realized that the jeep had some kick ass active suspension. The ride felt smooth as pavement, but the tire travel at all for corners was bonkers.

"Look at the amount of suspension travel", My Dad noted, "I want these shocks for my Hyundai."

"Screw the shocks", I said, "I want the chip that controls them."

"My car could use them too", Vortex and Taro said at the same time.

I snickered, "one of you owes the other a drink."

"I'll need to see some ID", Austin said over the radio.

"Fucking coms", I growled, "who left their radio on?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mercury quickly check his radio and shut it off.

"I caught it", I said, "you can't get away from me."

Mercury sighed, "am I in trouble?"

"Nah, just fucking with ya", I smiled, 'ready up, coming on the occupied drop point now."

"That was quick", Dad said getting the mini gun ready to go while the rest of my friends readied their weapons. The mule's drop zone was in a sort of canyon with walls about ten feet high at all points. The Black River encampment was hilariously small, only two Reborns with their masks off, a jeep and a tent. They hadn't rotted too much and seemed like they had just come out of hell with the way they looked.

"Try not to shoot me in the head!", I said as my Dad spun up the mini gun. The two Reborns were up as soon as they heard it, their hands high in the air.

"Hold fire! Hold fire!", the begged, "please!"

"No just shoot them!", Void said, "it's gotta be a trap."

Both of the Reborn's went down on their knees put their hands together, like they were begging.

"Come on", the older looking of the two said, "I don't wanna die! Please! Hear us out!"

"Hold fire", I said hopping out of the Jeep and walking up to them, "say your pieces, convince me."

"We can help you get into the crates", the Reborn said, "their full of money and weapons, going to a warehouse in a slum in China, somewhere in Beijing."

'What kind of weapons and how much money we talking?", I asked.

"400 Million US", the older Reborn said, "cash. I'm not sure what the weapons are, but they relate to X-04."

"The Project I just happened to stumble upon two fucking days ago", I said, "convenient for you ain't it? Void, eat."

Void slunk out of the jeep like a hungry Tiger, slouched low to the ground, claws out and fangs bared, growling like the X-01 he was.

"Come on!", the younger reborn pleased, "please don't kill us! We can help!"

"Sure", I said as Void passed me, "you can help and you just happen to know about X-04, which all to conveniently is the Project I happen to know nothing about, Void, make it slow, make it painful."

"With pleasure", Void hissed as he paced around them.

"Ace hold up", Vortex said, "these guys are legit, I can tell."

"How?", I asked.

"When people lie, I can tell", Vortex said, "these guys aren't lying to us, look at them, they look ready to give up just to make the pain and humiliation stop. Their two grown men on their knees, crying and begging you to hear them out. Listen, or I'll make you."

"Make me how?", I asked.

"We'll fight until one of us brakes the others bones", Vortex said, "and I mean that."

I turned to the two Reborns, then back to my team, "what do the rest of you think?"

"I don't see people brake apart like this allot", Taro said, "I say we trust 'em."

"Dad?", I asked.

"Your the CO son", Dad said, "your call."

"Mercury?", I asked.

He nodded, "their telling the truth."

I turned back to the Reborns. Void was sniffing all over them, trying to decide which one he should eat first.

"Void", I said, "stand down."

Void took a look at each Reborn, "yes sir", he said going back to the jeep.

"My team trusts the two of you", I said, "to that end, so do I. You haven't yet given me a reason not to and until such time as you do, I will treat you like members of my team, now having said that, betray us, I'll turn my X-01 loose on you, am I clear."

"Yes sir", the older Reborn said falling to his back in relief, "how about that Jake? Add another tally to the number of times we've escaped death just this week."

"I can't", the younger reborn, who I now assumed was the older one's brother, said, "there ain't anymore room on the paper."

"You two gonna grab your equipment or just sit there fucking around?", My Dad shouted as I got on the radio to Allen.

"Allen", I said, "hostile presence at Mule Drop zone has been erased, bring that Mule in.

"Rodger that", Allen said, "John's inbound now, ETA in 20 seconds."

I hung up the radio as the two Reborns, now wearing their masks, approached us.

"Mule unit?", one asked, "could you spare some 5.56? My rig's feeling a little light."

"Mine too", the other Reborn, Jake commented.

"If you got M4's then yeah", I said as John's Electric Chinook popped out from above the mountain. It had the large dune buggy filled with supplies strapped to it.

"Kind of stealth chopper is that?", Jake asked, "where's the engine noise?"

"It's electric", I said, "not actually a stealth chopper.

"Mule coming down", John said over the radio as it dropped the rope holding the Mule. The suspension creaked when it hit the ground before quickly settling and the unit name popped up right under Vortex.

"Now", I said, "the two of you get some ammo and then, we move to the camp."