The sky grew brighter as the rising sun dispersed the darkness. When the altitude dropped below 1,000 meters, the scenery around Owen quickly vanished from view. The numbers on the altimeter kept changing—1,000 meters, 800 meters, 600 meters, 400 meters, 200 meters...
When the altitude reached 150 meters, with a loud "pop," Owen pulled his parachute. A powerful upward force jerked him up as the parachute deployed successfully. He used both hands to adjust the parachute cords to steer, descending at a speed that looked slow but was actually quite fast.
Below, six parachutes were visible not far beneath him. The team hadn't scattered too far apart, and everyone had successfully deployed their chutes. There were no incidents of broken load lines or tangled parachutes.
Parachuting was a dangerous job. At this altitude, if anything went wrong, they wouldn't even have the chance to deploy a reserve chute.
As they got closer to the ground, the distance between team members widened. Beneath them was a forest. Owen maneuvered his square parachute to avoid the trees and landed in a clearing. After hitting the ground, he rolled to disperse the impact and got up. No other teammates were in sight, and no enemies were visible either.
Owen crouched down, carefully surveying the area while quickly gathering up his parachute. Once it was bunched together, he dragged it to the edge of the forest and buried it under dry leaves.
Seeing that the surroundings were temporarily safe, Owen pulled out his GPS and confirmed his location before rushing toward the marked rendezvous point.
By the time Owen arrived, Ghost and Fred had already reached the location and were disassembling the weapons crate. The crate was like a massive set of building blocks, made up of seven interlocking modules, each one containing all of an individual's gear.
Owen ran over and found his module, pulled it out, and opened it. Inside was a tactical AK-12 outfitted with a specialized Picatinny rail, a foregrip, and an EOTech 558 holographic sight.
For this deep-penetration operation behind enemy lines, Omega Squad used exclusively Russian weapons to maintain operational anonymity. Of course, the squad's weapons weren't the low-end versions found on the market; all were tactical models customized according to each member's preferences.
The rest of the team showed up one after another, each locating their module and gearing up. They attached grenades and magazines to their tactical vests. All assault members were equipped with AK-12s, though optics varied based on personal preference. Owen and Heartbeat chose EOTech 558 holographic sights, while Ghost favored an ACOG scope.
Bayev, acting as the fire support gunner, opted for an RPK machine gun fitted with rails and optics. He carried four 100-round drum magazines on his back.
Fred and Ghost, who finished gearing up first, took charge of security while the others continued to equip themselves. Fred, acting as the spotter, chose a VSS sniper rifle this time, while Swagg went with an SVD.
Once everyone was geared up, they buried the weapons crate on the spot. Even though the sun had risen, snowflakes continued to fall unhindered. Before long, heavy snowfall covered the site where the gear had been buried, leaving no trace behind.
At the edge of the forest, Owen tried to contact Omega but experienced communication issues. He then attempted to reach the pilot but again couldn't get through. It seemed the enemy had deployed communication jamming devices nearby.
He pulled out a GPS indicator. Since they couldn't contact the pilot for now, they decided to head to the crash site and retrieve the photo data.
The falling snow had its pros and cons. To avoid leaving tracks, Omega Squad chose to move through the forest. They proceeded cautiously through the woods, which were eerily silent.
By now, the sun was fully up and visibility was good. Owen and the others kept themselves hidden in the shadows among the trees. Even if someone passed by outside the forest, they'd have a hard time spotting them without a careful look.
Suddenly, as he walked ahead, Owen raised his right hand into a fist. The team stopped immediately, silently going on alert. Owen crept to the forest's edge and saw a fresh line of footprints in the snow stretching into the distance, already partially covered by falling snow. Whoever made them hadn't left too long ago.
Owen gestured for the team to move again, but they proceeded with even greater caution than before.
As the point man, Owen led the squad. The others followed a dozen steps behind. Normally, a squad leader wouldn't serve as point man, but Omega operated under unique circumstances. Owen's marksmanship was exceptional, and he possessed bullet time—no one could match his reaction speed. So he was unmatched in the point man role. Plus, with the experienced veteran Ghost serving as vice-captain, command issues were resolved even with Owen up front.
Their jump site was about two kilometers from the crash location. The squad had covered most of the distance when Owen suddenly raised his hand again. A hushed voice came through the earpiece: "Incoming, stay hidden…"
Everyone hit the ground and concealed themselves. Their camouflage uniforms blended seamlessly with the surroundings. A moment later, a group of people passed just outside the forest. They wore military uniforms and mostly carried AK-47s, likely Serbian militia.
The squad lay still, holding their breath. The outsiders walked by obliviously, stomping through the snow and revealing patches of dark soil beneath.
Owen didn't understand their language. The region of Bohemia had a messy mix of dialects—Croatian, Czech, Bohemian, Serbian…
He couldn't extract any useful information from their conversation. But since they hadn't been discovered and the others didn't seem intent on combat, they stayed put until the group passed over the hillside and vanished.
Once the coast was clear, Omega Squad got up and continued moving.
Before long, they reached the crash site.
The aircraft had broken into countless fragments scattered across a wide area. The flames were long extinguished. It was unclear how many people had searched the area before them, but the ground was a muddy mess. Judging by the footprints, that previous group had just left.
Owen dug through the area where the photos were supposed to be stored according to military intel. It was empty. The hard drive that had held the images was gone. Based on the aircraft's design, the storage device should have been intact. The hard drive couldn't have just fallen out, which meant only one thing—someone had taken it.
Omega had anticipated this. The enemy had fired three surface-to-air missiles in haste to bring down the recon plane, which meant it must've captured something valuable. So of course, they'd send people to retrieve it. Given Omega's arrival time, they were already too late.
Now the question was: who took the hard drive? It could have been the pilot. It could have been enemy operatives. Or, though less likely, it could have been that group they just saw.
Owen tried once more to contact the pilot and Omega HQ. Communications were still jammed.
In the next moment, Owen made a decision: regardless of whether that group had taken the hard drive, they had to eliminate them.
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