Sentinals: a squads respite

James groaned as he stepped into the cramped space of a High Altitude Tactical Insertion Pod, his weapons were stowed in 2 small racks next to the seat while various monitors displayed the status, altitude and hull integrity.

"now remind me why a HATIP Drop is best for me to get down there, I mean what happened to the much safer jumping off the side into a lake or tree." James muttered as he sat into the angled seat, the gel padding moving to accommodate his armor.

He was wearing a dome shaped helmet with a single slit in front of the eye's, on his chest was a Kevlar vest over the top of a Digital cam shirt, he had Long stone grey cargo pants with a pair of combat boots on his feet. Strapped to his leg a M1911 pistol with a laser pointer, strapped to his wrist was a small combat knife while on his chest a bandoleer of various grenades rested. He quickly closed the Pods door before typing the start up code into the main terminal. numbers and words rolled past his screen before all lights went out for a second as a single red light flooded the interior of the HATIP, on the monitor in front of him was a single word: 'Launch'. Slamming his hand onto the enter key of the terminal a single minute passed before a loud thump echoed out. Red lights and grey walls quickly changed into a blue sky with various cloud types.

A jet of flame burst out the underside of the pod as its momentum slowed considerably. James looked up to see the Indomitable slowly drifting away before he was slammed forward into the restraining harness. His ears roared as he punched in the hatch door open code. a small beep was his only warning before the door was blasted off it's hinges. Moving quickly James turned around and grabbed out his MK14 EBR which had a single 12x zoom scope and a suppressor attached to it, he quickly put it over his shoulder before grabbing a f88 Austyer from the rack, a HBAR scope and grip was attached to it along with a m203 underbarrel grenade launcher. Grabbing a alice pack from a small hatch in the seat, he stuffed the bag with as much ammuniton as possible for his weapons along with a pair of NVG's, some ration packs, a pair of binoculars, a compass, a Hexxy stove and an old 77 set with several modifications.

He pulled a small terminal from the roof and typed in a self destruct code. Quickly slinging his bag onto his back and grabbed the Austyer and set off into the rocky terrain of Gryphonia. Looking around his landing zone revealed nothing of interest to james as he marched west, the sun setting over the horizon.