19

When the plane descended, it was around eight o’clock at night. After their short nap on the plane, both Aiden and Liam were ready for a sleepless night. As the plane slowed down to a stop, their pilot opened the airlock just as stairs were connected to the door. Aiden got up from his chair and stretched his body. The pilot led them down the stairs to an armored vehicle outside, and bid them farewell. Then followed a half hour journey to a helicopter site owned by HLF Versailles, and finally, a one-and-a-half-hour helicopter ride to a spot five kilometers away from the professor’s chateau. On the helicopter, the pilot confirmed again with Aiden his mission parameters and told them that after they complete the mission, they ought to just call him and he will arrive in thirty minutes, as he will be hiding the chopper in an area nearby.

Once on the ground, the pilot confirmed that they were safe, and the sound of the propellers faded in the distance. Aiden took a look at his brother and had to admit that Liam looked good in his combat gear, although he was worried for the safety of his brother as the gravity of the situation set it. Liam was a gun enthusiast and a great shooter as evidenced by his records at the city’s shooting ranges. In addition, he was somewhat skilled at hand to hand combat since he not only took the mandatory self-defense classes for all highly ranked Bureogis department heads in the case of attempted assassination but also took extra classes as well due to personal interest. However, his brother, although with all the skills of the professional, lacked the experience of real combat. Aiden knew that some man broke under the crucible of battle, and he wished that Liam wasn’t one of them, for that would endanger both of them.

Aiden led the way as they started walking with speed, but also with care towards their destination. The sky was now completely dark, lit only by the stars and bright full moon. Aiden activated his night vision as he pulled down his mask over his helmet, and told Liam to do the same in his coms. Lighting was obviously strictly forbidden for the night mission as they would be easily spotted by anyone looking. To further take advantage of the night, both Aiden and Liam wore fully black combat armor, which although looked simple, are actually the most advanced thermal combat armors from the HLF courtesy of Bureogis. Aiden was sure that they were practically invisible to most sensors expected.

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The combat armors were designed with two modes, invisibility, and combat. The first would trap all heat inside the armor and surface temperature of the armor would naturally drop to whatever the surrounding is in around five minutes, thus being invisible to but the most advanced scientific thermal sensors. However, the obvious problem is that if the user was active moving inside the armor, then the environment inside would become humid very fast, as unlike exo-suites, they had not internal environmental control systems. The solution was the second mode –combat – where stealth ceases to matter as the shooting starts. The suite also had other perks, such as the fact that it was painted with an experimental paint that absorbed infrared light, which combined with the thermal invisibility, could quite literally make the user invisible on a very dark night. In addition, the whole thing was plated with light, but extremely strong ceramic plates all over to protect even against sniper bullets. The very fact that the HLF was able to get their hands on experimental equipment that even Aiden’s old team didn’t have access to shocked Aiden, and he wondered what level of military equipment Bureogis has truly achieved in the Weapons R&D department which his brother used to work at.

He shuddered at the realization of how much more they had to accomplish even after this mission but quickly calmed his mind as he recognized that the basic face of nature, which is that the future came after the present. They approached the northern side of the castle and launched their grapples quickly onto the roof. The hooks connected with a light clack, barely audible even with the enhanced hearing from their helmets. Aiden started pulling up but when he reached the top he saw that Liam was struggling and almost laughed at his brother’s awkward positioning. Eventually, Liam did come close to the top and Aiden gave his brother his harm helping him up the final meter. They then packed up their grapple and found the two predetermined positions which they would hide in from where they will ambush Aiden’s old team. Since shooting the operatives while they were climbing the wall will likely result in serious injuries or death, it was decided that non-lethal dart rounds would be used after the team was over the castle wall onto the roof.

The roof was a maze of pipes, generators, water tanks, solar panels, and various other devices offering plenty of good hiding spots. Aiden’s hiding spot was behind a generator in the middle of the roof, while Liam would be behind two large water basins on the western side of the roof. Aiden reached his location, and on coms confirmed that Liam has reached his. There they both prawned, and set the sights of their non-lethal on the northern side of the wall where their enemy was expected to emerge. There was then nothing else to do, except to wait.