The plane shook as it reached the proper height for the jump. 34,000 feet above the pacific ocean almost 40 miles out from the coast of North Korea. The Ranger checked their location on a GPS and gripped his throat mic, "Five minutes out." His oxygen mask precluded use of a conventional microphone. He turned to Cafas and continued. "Remember, after ya jump count t' 15 then pull yer shoot."

The Ranger crossed to the back of the aircraft, took hold of a bar and waited for the door to open. And when it did there was nothing but stars. They plane was above the clouds in the dead of night. The red light changed to green and the Ranger jumped out into the night.

Unofficially Ranger was acting under a nonexistent contract to quietly enter the North Hamgyong Province of North Korea, enter a hidden facility where it was believed a mutant was being kept who was crucial to the North Korean nuke program, and eliminate the threat in whatever means necessary. No markings as to his country of origin, non of his gear was American, and the aircraft was "borrowed" and never entered entered Korean airspace. Cafas was brought along due to his unique ability to be a human shield while also being competent a fight.

13... 14... 15 and the Ranger pulled his shoot. Now he would slowly parachute a few miles inland using a GPS attached to his forearm to navigate. It would serve as the only light once they passed below the clouds.

... with the brim pulled way down low.
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet, machine guns ready to go...

It had been a long flight. Getting the aircraft in the first place had been no small task, then explaining why there had been a shaky and unannounced take off to the airport authorities. They'd flown below the radar net until they'd cleared the coast, and from there it had been several long hours in a noisy, bumpy cargo bay that had certainly not been kitted out for passengers.

...Are ready, are you ready for this,
are you hanging on the edge of your seat.
Out of the doorway the bullets rip,
to the sound of the beat.

Anothe...

"Five minutes out."

...bites the dust...

"Remember, after ya jump count t' 15 then pull yer shoot."

Cafas had no idea what half the stuff he was wearing did, but he had figured out how to push an ipod feed through the headset while prioritising radio. For that he was grateful.

Sadly they were about to jump, and the ipod would not be coming with them. At least, not for long.

"Roger. See you on the floor."

Cafas pulled the ipod out of the little headset circuit he had going. A pin in the headphone socket and the circuits and hard drive were slag.

He followed The Ranger to the rear of the cargo bay and held on to the lifeline as the wind rushed through the opening bay door. He pressed his hand to his throat as the the light turned green. "Go time."

The Ranger jumped, Cafas counted to five and followed. Back flip into spread eagle. The back flip was not necessarily required. The sensation of freefall had not lost it's charm since his brief crash course with The Ranger. Crash course was a generous term for being shoved out the back of a plane at 34 000 feet with the only instruction being "Count to fifteen and yank the cord. Roll when you hit the ground." Luckily he had figured out the basics on the fly.

13... 14... 15 The sudden yank as the chute unfurled and caught the air. Cafas peered around and spotted the faint glow of the GPS and the large black spot of The Ranger's chute. He angled toward his partner and tried to keep himself in line with him.

There was a loud crack, mostly drowned out by the sound of the jet engines, as an ipod hit Mach 2 courtesy of it's metal back plate.

As the Ranger slowly approached the clouds he killed the back light on his GPS. He had pointed himself in the right direction and the longer the light was on the more likely someone would eventually see a falling light. The light was out only moments before his mutation activated and he could see again thanks to heat.

When they passed below the cloud cover several minutes later the Ranger could see the world before him as detailed as if the sun was out, but much more monochrome. Their target was still nowhere in sight, but they were still at least 20 minutes out and up at this point.

The HAHO would allow them to enter North Korea undetected, and touch them down near their target. once down they would have to navigate their way in and through the facility to the its heart. It was almost a guarantee that they would have to go loud at that point so they would have to fight their way back out, but longer they could go before being detected lowered the resistance they would encounter on the way out.

As they drifted lower, and further into North Korean territory, the Ranger would make minor course adjustments and radioed them back to Cafas. For now they could use coms but once they were within a mile of the facility they'd need radio silence.

Coming in for the touchdown the Ranger could see men moving around a short while off and despite attempts to conceal the entrance from the naked eye the Ranger could see the heat radiating off of it from within. A few moments later and his feet struck ground. Ready and practiced at this the Ranger had his 'chute off and was moving with just his boots having hit the ground.

He unfastened a clamp and the PP-19, a submachine gun favored by Russian Spetznaz, now hung across his chest ready to be brought to bear. Compactness, supressability, large ammo capacity, and being a strictly Russian weapon made it an excellent weapon for this operation.

The Ranger surveyed ahead of them. They were roughly a mile and a half out from where he had seen the entrance. The Korean attempt to conceal the entrance had led to a small guard posted outside. He waved Cafas on and started for the facility.

Cafas was vaguely aware of the Ranger's chute below him, right up until they hit the clouds From then on he was next to blind and following instructions as best he could.

Cold and humid air rushed past him. He'd never quite realised how fast parachutes still allow you to drop. It didn't seem like all that long at all until the ground was approaching his feet. He braced, rolled and clumsily pulled the pack off his back, collecting up his parachute and stuffing it back in the pack. People did that right? He'd seen it on a movie once he was sure.

I am so not ready for this job...

Cafas had more military gear hanging off of him than he knew what to do with. Literally. Seriously what did that thing do? Why did that knife have a trigger? He unclamped his own weapon, folded out the stock and pressed it into his shoulder as demonstrated. NV Goggles swung down so he could see what the hell he was doing. Moments later Ranger gave the signal and began to move up. Cafas was close in tow.

Never point it at friendlies, finger off the trigger and out of the guard unless you intend to fire, aim down the sights, line those two bits up over what you wanna hit. Don't touch that, aim for the head... or was it don't aim for the head cos it's hard to hit? Oh man this sure ain't call of duty.

They moved quickly forward, and barely made a sound. Four guards were stationed ahead of them. He might never have seen them if Ranger hadn't pointed them out. They closed in fast, out of view and behind cover. Ranger made the decisions, Cafas stuck as close to him as possible.

The ranger was good. They made it up unseen. Cafas could have touched the guards.

3...

Sweat trickled down his back, his breathing became harder to control. He hadn't killed someone in such a cold calculated way before.

2...

Could he do it? Could he squeeze the trigger when the moment came? He'd been trained by the X-men, they didn't kill people often, and certainly not if it was avoidable. Could this be avoided?

1...

Moment of truth, his mind went silent.

Clackclack... Clackclack.

The suppressors did amazing work really. A loud clicking was about all it sounded like. The guards lay still and Cafas looked to the Ranger for their next move. He was almost disturbed by how unphased he was by the whole thing. 4 lives ended, 2 at his own hand.

They made it up to the entrance unseen, the secrecy of the base made this fairly busy. No big spotlights. As they got closed it became more a game of moving when guards were turned and maneuvering as soundlessly as possible. Finally in position, practically on top of a pair of the guards, the Ranger gestured with his left arm indicating which targets Cafas was to drop and which he would.

He started a countdown, but at two returned his hand to the gun. On zero he fired. Four rounds, on in the head and one in the chest of two men. The Ranger's targets down he moved up to the corpses.

Quickly and efficiently he searched them for identification badges and other items to pass through any type of security. The bodies searched he drug his pair off to the side.Missing guards was curious, the bodies of dead guards was alarming.

Finally the Ranger approached a wall of dirt that at a distance looked real, but up close was clearly just camouflage, found a seam at the bottom and lifted. It was a metal hangar door, not large enough for a plane, but big enough for a large truck to pass through.

A quiet grunt as the Ranger's body exploded in size as his muscles grew in size and density to give him the strength to force this door open enough for them to slip in.

Inside was a long tunnel, with a paved road on the floor and smooth arched ceiling. The path continued for roughly three quarters of a mile before opening up to a small area with equipment to unload what was on the truck and room for it to turn around. There was a large metal, wide enough for five men to walk abreast through the opening. The door was also three feet thick and attached to equipment to shut it automatically. That wasn't the entrance for them. In the last moments before his eyes returned to observing visible light in the almost dim lighting of the tunnel he saw a patch of heat.

It was a manhole cover made to look the same as the ground around it, concrete. The Ranger approached it, found a small groove, and pulled it open revealing a ladder leading down. It was an emergency exit. He started down the ladder and soon his thermal vision returned to him as he climbed down.

Drag bodies aside, made sense. He grabbed his own pair by their collars and heaved them into some bushes. They would be missed soon enough, and found pretty easily all things considered, but it would do for now.

Turning back he followed the Ranger under the camo netting. The steel door in front of them was pretty imposing. He could have melted a hole right through it given time, but that was easily linked back to him, and time was something they didn't have. Instead there was a moment's pause as The Ranger's powers kicked in. There was a protest from the mechanism controlling the door, but slowly they opened under the sheer force being applied.

They slipped in quickly. The door in front of them now, the other door of the entry airlock, Cafas was less confident about getting through. Three foot of solid steel wasn't within his safe limits.

Now what?

The Ranger had the answer for that too. As if in response to the unasked question his partner walked across to a patch of floor, just like any other, and prised it up. Underneath, a ladder descending into darkness. Some form of secret exit. About as intelligent as a 2 meter by 2 meter exhaust port directly to the core of the base.

Rogue two standing by.

The Ranger lead the way down. Cafas puled the slab of concrete back over the hole as he dropped past the lip of the tunnel. Then it was a near silent climb down. The ladder went much further than he'd have thought. Though honestly he had no experience with nuclear weapons facilities. For all he knew they descended for miles into the earth and they'd just climbed down a single floor.

The tunnel they eventually landed in was dimly lit by what seemed like cinema floor light strips. The NV goggles made it bright as daylight. They had to duck to avoid knocking their heads on the ceiling of the tunnel.

Time until discovery was quickly ticking by. The pair double timed it down the corridor on the balls of their feet, their gear rattling slightly. A hundred yards later they were met by a closed bulkhead. It looked like it was airtight when closed. That worried Cafas. What the hell would they find on the other side?

Well, we're about to find out.

Cafas touched the exposed skin of his wrist to the metal locking wheel. He could vaguely sense the structure of the door. He located what, at his best guess, were the pins locking the door. Turning the wheel would have been unnecessarily loud. Instead he lowered the boiling point of the pins until they simply turned to gas. The energy hit was larger than he had been expecting. A momentary slump against the wall, a few blinks to clear his head somewhat. He gave the Ranger a thumbs up.

Three... Fingers held up.

Two.. Fingers held up.

One. hand against the bulkhead door.

Zero He shoved the giant metal plate hard and it swung outwards, into a brightly lit hallway. Cafas quickly tilted his goggles off his eyes and took his bearings on the place they'd found themselves in.

Down the ladder they climbed until eventually they stepped off on the side of another tunnel a couple hundred feet down. The floor was just high enough to not duck... if you are a short underfed Korean soldier. The lighting was not enough to turn off the Ranger's power, but only just. Hopefully that meant this was a little used tunnel.

They would have to hurry. No telling how long until the guards out front were missed, but it likely wouldn't be too long. Down the corridor they went, as quickly as they could without making enough noise to draw someone's attention. It wasn't long before Ranger saw it, a bulkhead ahead that to his infrared vision glew brightly against the cool stone around it.

The Ranger gestured to Cafas to indicate it was his turn and stepped back, raising his gun as he watched back the way they'd come. All clear.

He turned back, lowering the gun, when he heard Cafas slump against the wall. A beat later Cafas gave Ranger the thumbs up and the Ranger nodded. Now was the time, Stealth was likely about to go out the window.

A deep breath as the door was opened. A tighter grip on his weapons grip and his muscles primed, ready to explode into motion.

The door opened, light flooded the tunnel they were in. The Ranger raised his weapon as he stepped into a very well lit hallway. Gone were the runway lights like a theater and the stone walls and floor. Now everything was white and smooth, bright fluorescent lights hummed away in the ceiling. Stripes were painted on the tile floor, obviously lines helping people to find where they're going. Red, blue, yellow, and black. The Ranger moved down the hallway, his gun at the ready. The whole place had a very sterile feeling, like a laboratory.

He followed the black line through the complex. Occasionally stopping and ducking into a room to let guards or researchers pass. Once he slipped into a room to find a scientist drinking some tea. The Ranger mumbled an apology as he quietly silenced the man and then restraining, gagging, and lifing a high security clearance badge off him before moving on. Eventually they reached another bulkhead. This one had blast resistant glass on either side offering a glimpse in.

A large chamber, wiring everywhere, machines humming away doing science, and the occasional Korean scientist moving around checking on this and toggling that. In the center of the room was a teenager with his hands and feet held fast. Other machines, with large panels resembling solar panels were, around him. Occasionally a small burst of faint light would come from a panel and the man's body reacted by mimicking the glow before erupting in a short burst of intense light, first yellow then blue.

Found him.

The Ranger raised the badge from the scientist and looked at Cafas. "Now the fun part." he swiped the badge and stormed into the room.

There were a few near misses, and one accosted scientist, but finally they were closing on their target! And all before an alarm was sounded. By all accounts a wild success so far. They stood, backs against the wall, either side of the door.

"Now the fun part."

"I don't know, the skydiving bit was pretty great..."

The passcard flashed up. Red light turned green, slight beep and the distinctive click of a bolt being withdrawn. Cafas pivoted, leant back, raised his gun, and drove his heel into the door, his full weight and strength in tow.

BANG! The door swung nearly 180 degrees and hit the wall. The latch spun off somewhere amongst the scientific equipment. "ON THE FLOOR! ON THE FLOOR NOW!" Cafas rushed into the room, covering the left half. Scientists dove for the ground. A pair of guards opened up. Controlled bursts from their assault rifles, all centre mass. Good training. Sadly it did them very little good.

Liquidised bullets dripped down his chest, his shirt was quite worse for wear. Cafas returned fire. CLACKCLACKLCLACK, CLACKCLACKCLACK. One guard dropped, dead. Cafas trusted Ranger to put the other down while he soaked up their ammunition.

Barely a second after the fight began, a Klaxon followed.

"Well, I'd say all in all this race ended in a dead heat."

They stormed into the room and gave the scientists the closest they'd ever experience to riding out a tornado without cover. If was quickly obvious to the Ranger that Cafas had no idea how to clear a room after a door breach luckily it didn't matter as bullets just melted against him. The Ranger continued his approach as if Cafas wasn't there, it was essentially the same only there was a bullet magnet that occasionally shot someone. Identify heaviest side of room, turn that direction, head to corner shooting targets, turn and head to next corner shooting all targets, at corner turn and eliminate all targets from that quadrant.

The Ranger dropped a guard with a quick burst of fire to the man's chest just after Cafas dropped the one next to him as he approached his first turn. Another guard was dropped at the next, and three more as they stormed in through a door when he reached his final position. By this point the alarm had been raised.

Moving now to the center of the room Ranger surveyed the room. No more contacts. "I'll cover the entrances, see if ya' can get little boy over here free." He fired at another guard trying to come in. The guard saw Ranger in enough time to duck to the side in time. "Remember, get 'im out if we can. If not we make sure these fine folks can't utilize him further." The guard poked his gun around through the door and the Ranger put a bullet hright through his support hand.

Cafas moved over to where the boy was strapped to a glorified table. Poor kid looked like he'd been there for months. Probably being kept alive, but nothing more. He looked up at Cafas, terror in his eyes, babbling and glancing at Cafas' gun. He didn't need to know Korean to recognise someone begging for their life.

" 'S okay kid, we're here to get you out."

The bindings were thick leather straps. The whole set up looked more like an old asylum "treatment" room than anything. Cafas undid the straps quickly as the Ranger dropped more guards. He really wished they'd stop screaming.

Cafas picked the boy up and placed him on his feet. He held, if shakily. No chance of running. Luckily, in a sick sort of way, the kid was malnourished, short and thin. He clipped his gun to his chest as it had been for the trip down and drew the MP-443 from his thigh holster.

"Sorry kid, this isn't going to be comfortable." And with that he threw the kid over his shoulder. "Got him. Now lets get out of here."

The helical mag of the Ranger's PP-19 dropped, he slammed in another and worked the action just in time to raise in and drop another pair of guards. He then heard Cafas behind him, it was time to go.

Ranger took point and moved out into the hallway again. This time stealth was not an option, this time they'd be moving as violently through the facility as necessary. Or at least they would if any more soldiers showed up. It seemed they learned that they couldn't just throw bodies at the intruders to stop them they were likely setting up either a barrier or preparing or more skilled strike team.

When they reached the bulkhead leading out into the tunnel the Ranger slowly opened it but slammed it back just in time to avoid his head being ventilated. They'd formed up around 10 soldiers.

A look back at Cafas, "I got right, you get left." The Ranger then turned back around, wedged his arm between a few rods on the bulkhead and with a grunt broke the door free of its hinges. With his other arm he held the PP-19 to his shoulder.

He then stepped out into the tunnel, the bulkhead shielding him from hostiles on his left as he rotated counter-clockwise firing on targets as they became visible.

The run back to the bulkhead was worryingly uneventful. Surely they hadn't mowed down every guard in a facility this size.

The salvo of fire that greeted The Ranger opening the bulkhead proved him to be correct. The Ranger got the bulkhead closed just in time.

"I got right, you get left."

Cafas dropped the kid as gently as the time restraints allowed. "Stay!"

He had he understood? No time to wonder. The bulkhead turned. The Ranger and Cafas strode forward in unison. The sound was deafening. Echoing up the tunnel. Hot lead filled the air. Cafas ran dry. The soldier had been dead five rounds earlier. He reloaded.

"Sorry, I'll get used to the volume of death soon enough.

Cafas turned and ran back to where he'd left the cargo. "He's still here." Cafas picked him up again. He could hear sounds from up the tunnel. He holstered his sidearm and gathered up a handful of the bulkhead's steel. He walked ahead of The Ranger. "I'd say they'll have that hatch covered by all the guys they can muster. I'll blow the hatch apart with this. Get a flash-bang ready and I'll launch that after it. Unless you have a breaching charge tucked away somewhere of course."

The Ranger dropped the bulkhead he'd used as a shield. Smoothly he dropped the magazine from his PP-19 and slammed a new one into place. "It helps t' not think of them as people. It doesn't matter if your tango, enemy, target, hostile, or bad guy dies. Reconcile with your conscience after you're home safe." He looked up at Cafas, "And don't share that view with the shrinks."

"I've got detcord, but I'll let you blow it." Being inside a long tube stuck with the blast of detcord did not sound appealing or very survivable. He pulled out a flash bang and handed it to Cafas. "You're up first. Breach, flashbang, engage whichever direction has more hostiles. I'll follow and cover the other side. We need t' secure wheels fer a run t' the Russian border. Вы понимаете?"

"Достаточно для миссии." ((Enough for the mission)) He knew what The Ranger had actually meant, but he had prepared for the mission and he was kinda proud. It was going to be a hard climb holding the package. For The Ranger anyway. Cafas was taking point, he couldn't afford to take precious cargo into a hail of lead.

He neared the top, PP 19 slung, one hand holding his lump of steel. He braced himself two metres below the top hatch, a foot against the wall opposite the ladder. Flash-bang pulled from webbing, pin gripped in teeth for lack of a spare hand.

The sonic boom was almost enough to stun him is such an echo chamber. The results couldn't be argued though. The hatch above disintegrated as nearly a pound of steel ripped through at Mach Fuck Off The projectile went clean through the ceiling and kept going. That was before Cafas even registered it had gone off. The flash-bang rattled over the lip into the room above. The pin spun down the shaft below. Cafas clamped his eyes and held his ears.

It was still bloody loud.

No sooner had it gone off than Cafas launched himself up, pushing off the second to last rung into the room above. Right side was more heavily manned. Not for long. "Следующая слева!" ((Next left!)) Then all was gunfire. Men died, blood ran. Cafas emptied the last round from his magazine executing a man who had been wounded and surrendered. He didn't like the way he kept saying American. He made a note to work the accent harder.

No survivors. Reload.

"Гараж?"

Cafas took point and the Ranger slung the package over his shoulder, only slightly worried about having a living nuke next to his head. He let Cafas take a slight lead before following up. No sense being right beneath him when he turned the tunnel into a study in how many decibels a skull could handle.

When the hatch blew the Ranger waited an extra second and started up. The concussive force of the blast traveling down to him was enough to bring about an instant headache but other than that he plowed through it, eventually emerging into the firefight. He'd heard Cafas yell down left in Russian so he slid out the package brought his submachine gun to bear on the left side of the tunnel.

The supressed fire of his PP-19 was met by the loud crack of unsurpressed fire from the Korean soldiers. The Ranger fired on the move as he drug the package behind cover. A metal drum that rang like bell from hell when shot. From there he could quickly eliminate targets as they presented themselves until only Cafas and he were left moving.

Again in Russian, Cafas asked 'garage?' His accent could use work, but at least on this side of the border it should work.

"да." The Ranger nodded, slug the package back over his shoulder and double timed down the tunnel until he could see a pair of 5 ton trucks. They looked like shoddy nock offs of the USMC M939s. 6 wheeled death traps for sure, but good enough for him. He tossed the package in the back and jumped into the cab. There he broke off part of the underside of the dash and set to hotwiring the vehicle. After a minute the engine turned over and they were moving.

"Keep your eyes peeled. This'll likely be one hell of a run to Russia." The Ranger through the big truck in gear and plowed through door hiding the tunnel from the outside. Now the fun part. Drving a stolen truck, with a stolen nuclear weapons secret, across hostile territory, to pose as another nations Tier-1 forces to get in before disapearing again. Simple... Better reload.