Last Safari

Monday, February 22nd, 1130 hours


"Alright, listen up!" The mid-flight pep-talk began, a tradition amongst the Red Fangs and mercenary/military units all over the world. "I know Command already gave you the textbook version, so I'm going to keep this short." Sergeant Cochran gripped the support bar overhead to steady himself. He refused to sit, in spite of the battering the HS-950 Skytrain was taking from turbulence, knocking the tilt-wing aircraft and its passengers about mercilessly. "We've been hired because we're the best at what we do, and what we do is killing!" Cochran had to yell to be heard over the rush of wind howling past the open door providing the squad inside with an impressive view of the nearly endless sea of green that was the Yucatan rain forest. "We're fifteen minutes from being boots on the ground smack dab at the epicenter of some major magic dreck and its our job to do what a bunch of scared yokels were too big a pansy-asses to take care of!"

Everyone in the aircraft laughed, nodding in agreement as they glanced at each other, but the gruesome images from the mission briefing were still fresh on their minds. Three hundred Aztlan militiamen killed, although 'butchered' would be a more accurate description. "All this magic's coming from some damn pyramid, so we're going in there, finding whatever's causing it, and blowing it back to the dark ages."

"Hey, Sarge!" The soldier's tone made it painfully obvious he was about to ask a stupid question. "I thought the pyramids're in Egypt! This place's too fuckin' humid to be Egypt! What gives?" Sure enough, the squad shared a nervous laugh at the man's expense.

"Alvarez, stow the retarded questions!" Cochran barked a rebuke once the laughter died down. "Have you even loaded a datasoft once in your life? This area used to be crawling with Aztecs and they built all kinds of pyramids!"

"Actually, Sarge, the Aztecs weren't in the Yucatan," a reserved squad member spoke up to correct him, his voice barely audible over the roaring wind. "You're thinking of the Mayans."

"I'm thinking," Cochran bellowed angrily, interrupting the chortles of the soldiers, "of kicking your smartass out the door and making you walk the rest of the way, Walters! Now, in ten minutes we'll be setting down right outside the pyramid. Our boys from Echo and Alpha squads have already cleared the area, and Delta squad's just a klick ahead of us; we're the relief. So if anybody besides Alvarez slept through the briefing," he ignored the protesting 'hey!' from the dimwitted soldier, "Now's the time to speak up and ask any questions you've got. Preferably before we land, and not after!"