It was Saturday, October 22.  I don't know what the weather was
like in Worcester, but where I happened to be just then, it was windy
and cold, with gusts up to... oh, I don't know... 200 knots or
thereabouts.  I stood at the end of the Prince of Thebes' cargo ramp and
checked my gear.  Everything was right where it'd been when I checked
it the minute before.  I was as ready as I was ever going to be.
        I turned to the person next to me and asked, "Are you sure you
want to do this?"
        Thanks to my radio headset,  didn't have to yell, though
the plane's cargo cabin was full of the roar of wind and the drone of
engines.  The person I was speaking to had a headset too, but she
didn't answer me verbally; she just tugged one of the straps of her
harness a little tighter, then gave me a huge grin, her teeth and eyes
glinting scarlet in the red glow of the get-ready light.
        Not for anything like the first time, I remarked to myself
that my recently-acquired apprentice was a strange, strange child, and
one who bore close watching.  Fearlessness is a handy thing, but it can 
get a person into a world of trouble.
        I've done a lot of things in my life that weren't legal, but
today I was breaking new ground.  If taking a minor into a potential
combat situation is reckless endangerment - and it is - I don't even
want to think about what getting her there by jumping out of an
airplane is.
        I sighed to myself and turned to look out and down.  Silly,
really.  I couldn't see my target; A, by the time it would be visible
from this doorway, I'd better not be standing there, and B, it was 0217 
hours local time and there was nothing to see out there but night.
        Hitting a specific spot on what is, let's face it, an
inconveniently big planet from a moving airplane is a tricky business.
If your drop aircraft is off-course by just a little bit, or you jump
at the wrong time, you miss.  If your target is near water and that
happens, you could end up taking a swim.  If you find yourself
parachuting among huge craggy mountains and that happens, you might
find the ground a lot closer than you were expecting, or even, if
you're very unlucky, ride your drop aircraft into a cliff.
        Nothing I could do about any of that, though.  I'd just have
to trust Zoner to get me to the right spot at the right time, and then
it'd be my turn to do the rest.
        The light above the door turned green and, for a moment, I
didn't have time to think any more.
        "Let's go," I said to Sakura, and then I flipped my visor shut
and stepped into the night.  Suddenly it was very quiet indeed.
        As I plummeted toward - I hoped - the Province of Alberta, I
still didn't have time for a lot of rumination.  While the icy wind
snapped at my clothes and the glowing dial of the altimeter on my
wrist wound down, I only had one stray thought:
        How did I get into this again?

Here's one I hadn't expected to see. Nice.

I've been looking forward to this since the first iteration of this scene was posted some time back (in 2004, I think :) ).

I'll freely admit, Warrior's Legacy is my favorite series here. Its just plain, over the top fun.

Twipper

...I still have all my White Wolf Street Fighter books. And I still play various fighting games all the time. Pity I have no money to get SF4, but that's how it goes.

Party time. =)

"They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say, 'nice try'." --Lezard

>How did I get into this again?

"Freezing my butt off
Waiting in the blowing snow.
Must be Zoner's fault."

-Simonz

As the others have said, looks like it'll be another fun ride. 8)

I did notice a typo in the 3rd paragraph. The phrase 'I didn't have to yell' is missing the 'I'.

We have concluded, after some consideration, that performing a covert parachute infiltration of an international terrorist base with a minor is, in fact, calculated endangerment. So on the plus side, it's not reckless at all, and on the minus side, uh, you don't even have that excuse. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

For some reason that reminds me of the time I spent an enjoyable afternoon watching action flicks with a friend of mine... who was (and still is) studying to become a lawyer.

His gleeful tallying of the various laws being broken by the supposed heroes -- often, more laws than the bad guys broke -- had me in stitches.

Now I can't help but wonder what the results would be if that exercise were applied to WL... or EPUs works in general :D.

"Well, let's see, that's 142 counts of reckless endangerment, 367 attempted murders... crap, I've run out of room on the pad."

--sofaspud
--

OK, now you've got me wondering how many laws the Wedge Rats broke in UF 1, alone.

“They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on.”
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

>OK, now you've got me wondering how many laws the Wedge Rats broke in
>UF 1, alone.

Oh, quite a number. Mostly traffic laws, though. It wasn't their nuclear bomb, and keep in mind that in 1991 it was perfectly legal to shoot fraternity members in Massachusetts.†

--G.
†no it wasn't
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>†no it wasn't

Then again, I can think of several cases (Knights of the STRAIGHT and narrow is a perfect example) where it SHOULD be...

>>OK, now you've got me wondering how many laws the Wedge Rats broke in
>>UF 1, alone.
>
>Oh, quite a number. Mostly traffic laws, though. It wasn't
>their nuclear bomb, and keep in mind that in 1991 it was
>perfectly legal to shoot fraternity members in Massachusetts.†
>
>--G.
>†no it wasn't
>

Not without a hunting license, and have you ever seen the forms for that? Makes a 1040 look pleasant.

Peter Eng
--
"Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow."

Cool teaser! Nice to see more of this series.

“They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on.”
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington