“Why the fuck haven’t these assholes left?!” Stryme huffed crushing a stone beneath his feet as he pushed himself up, shaking his head in frustration.

My lip curled into a smile and fought with all my might not to make it seem snide, but failed.

“I told you, this is an R & R refill for these bastards. Look at them laze around whilst they’re on guard duty.”

“Well, maybe we should help them to a permanent rest!”

“Sounds good.” I joked.

“Two days max you said, night is soon here, they should be packing up!”

“Yeah, I did surmise two days, but I didn’t think they’d push it to three…possibly.”

“We co—“

“No…your feet are louder than a grasshopper’s cry. We’ll be heard a mile away.” I snapped.

I watched as Stryme’s jaw protrude in frustration, whilst he balled his fist. “Let’s give it till sundown, then we’ll see what we can do.”

“Right, I’ll check this on the eastern side, you take the south.”

“Right bu—“ I tried to say, but he cut me off.

“I remember! keep low, and don’t step on any loose rocks. it sounds simple, but it isn’t!”

“Right.”

Stryme huffed off in the opposite direction, lying flat on his stomach slowly crawling to the western section of the cliff, whilst I headed to the southern section.

The precipice we’d commandeered was frustratingly craggy, making it cumbersome to traverse at points.

The fatigues had me sweating like a pig with each passing second whilst I felt my skin meld with the metal struts ingrained into my body.

It felt like a fire churning as my skin touched it each time they rubbed together. You’d figure that after all these years, this would’ve been easier, but it wasn’t, especially the mental toll it gave me.

A warm pain resonated around my waist, changing from a churning pain to a stabbing sensation.

I bit my lip, forcing it down as I rounded another rock formation a half a meter in height then rested my head on the rock for a breather.

As the pain slowly subsided after five minutes, during which I peeped to my left, looking over the ravine. “At least the pain reminds me I’m still human,” I whispered to myself.

Instead of eight men patrolling, they were six this time. Three were located on the southern side of the ravine and three were located on the east where the ravine was open to flanking based on how their camp was set up.

After surveying the ravine for the past two days, Stryme and I counted at least eighteen men here, the minimum.

I’d used my X-Ray Vision to confirm the number on occasion but realised that two men never left the tent, which was the biggest tent located on the northern half of the camp.

As I lay there, I watched as time pass me by for three hours straight, monitoring each guard like a hawk.

One of the guards on the eastern section had a habit of tapping his foot whilst looking left and right, whilst his partner dozed off if he sat down for two minutes.

The guards on the southern side sadly didn’t have any habits which made it difficult for me to decide how to approach them if they had the night shift.

Stryme and I made note of each bandit over the past two days, realising that not one of them shirked their duty.

However, one of them didn’t move an inch from out of his tent, which solidified our theory that he was the leader.

The challenge was making it down the ravine, during the night the moisture in the air would settle on the stones on the way down, making it slippery and difficult for me to traverse.

The next challenge we had, was the lack of cover for Stryme to lay cover fire from. In the entirety of this precipice, only one rock was thick enough for him to use, which meant, I’d have to incapacitate the majority of them down below, making it easier for him to lay cover fire.

The final challenge was, knowing if these men were battle-hardened or not. And in all honesty, they all seemed solid, which came to my next problem.

Were they Ravagers? Because despite Zooming in with my cybernetic eye, I couldn’t confirm if they were.

These men are unified, they know each other, and they work together I thought, watching two men nod at each other whilst they changed shifts.

“The morale’s decent within the camp. Taking them out might be challenging, but we still don’t know if they're capable.”

I ground my teeth and began to mentally prepare for the assault because it was quite clear that, infiltrating the camp and incapacitating them would be the way forward because the next stop for water would be at least five days from now, and without water resources completely dwindling, it was now or ever.

◆◆◆

The purple and orange hues rose in the far distance, showing that dawn had reached and the sun had finally retreated into the abyss of the night sky.

The world was now dark and cold, with a hint of sand spraying across the precipice as I rubbed some of it off my cheek, feeling as though I hadn’t showered in days, which was true.

“Ready?” I asked

“Ready,” Stryme answered.

“Remember the plan?”

“Stick to cover and pick assured shots, don’t be a hero.”

“Right,” I said.

“Don’t worry Cypher. I’ll try to take out as many as I can, covertly, but remember they mustn't discover you, they’ll shred that boulder to bits with concentrated shots.”

“Yeah…but I’m letting you know again. I’m not very good with a Rifle.”

“That’s fine Stryme. I just need you to hit your shots, make them scared, that’s the important part if I get caught.”

“Got it.”

Despite being anal for the latter part of the day. Stryme slowly came around after he began putting his A7 Carbine together.

On the other hand, I couldn’t afford to do that, Carbine’s were notoriously long, and weren’t the best options for climbing down cliffs.

Instead, the SL70 Modular Submachine Gun Rook outfitted me, was a lot more compact compared to the one I usually used for such engagements.

Rook ensured the SL70 wouldn’t jam, but we all know how things go in combat sometimes. I wasn’t willing to find out, but I had no choice in the matter, right?

“Are you sure the northern side will have little to no moisture on the rocks?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Stryme said.

“I’ll take your word.”

Stryme nodded, then nestled up behind his cover, propping his rifle up beside him.

I turned in the opposite direction and prone to the ground and slowly wormed my way to the other side of the precipice.

Each time I came across a patch of broken rocks I pushed myself up, stabilising each step before moving forward.

I was an earthworm, wiggling through the soil, finding its path back to the colony, the only thing, was the colony was encroached on by invaders.

The flatness of the precipice was welcoming, once I reached the halfway point but still wished I didn’t have to do this shit.

It took me longer than I wanted to reach the northern section of the area.

I brought myself to the edge of the cliff, ensuring my hands grazed the ragged surface without fault.

The Furtiven Suit, did its job, as best as it could keeping me warm and hidden or at least I hoped.

The subtle sound of my feet crushing stones below flowed through the ravine.

Three men exited one of the tents from down below. What’s happening here, they aren’t supposed to change shifts for an hour, I grumbled to myself, What bullshit is this?

I ground my teeth in annoyance because this wasn’t something Stryme or I anticipated. “Cypher, their changing shifts, are you down below yet?”

“I’m climbing down as we were weak,” I whispered. “I’m going dark.”

“Copy that.”

“TEL! GET YOUR ASS HERE!” Someone shouted down below.

“FUCK OFF NEV! IF I DIDN’T LOSE THAT BET, I WOULDN’T HAVE TO RUN TWO SHIFTS!”

“SERVES YOU RIGHT! I TOLD YOU TWO STONES, BUT NO. YOU WANTED TO BET ON THREE!”

My right foot slid across the surface, catching a rock below. It wasn’t enough to hold me. So checked another three stones.

I eventually found one I was satisfied with, which happened to be on my right.

A gust of wind roared across the ravine, blowing dust from on top of the precipice and losing a couple of rocks that knackered their way to me.

Three men replaced the two that were located in the south. On the other side, where I was had no one, but it seemed like two men were making their way towards my side. This goes against everything we observed these two days, I complained.

My heart rose to the bottom of my throat, which wasn’t helping thanks to the wind stealing the warmth from my lips, cracking them dry as I descended.

The Furtiven Suit provided that perfect cover, in this pitch-black area. I kept looking at the dial on the left wrist of the suit, ensuring no light had hit it.

It was inconvenient for me to manual check the detectors every five seconds, compared to having it display on my cybernetic eye, but with such short notice, integrating it with my cybernetic eye would’ve taken some time. If only I still had Nova, I thought bitterly. I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit.

I didn’t know why Nova came still came to mind as I descended down the ravine.

I’d buried her in my mind. Rex had tried finding a new artificial assistant. He did find one for me, but for whatever reason whenever he tried to install it, it would always cancel out, which left the both of us confused, even Jengo, my cybernetic maintenance specialist didn’t understand either.

At least Jengo found out why I couldn’t install a new assistant. The firmware from my Cybernetic eye was the problem, it stalled the installation process at 60%.

He told me he would’ve found a solution for it, but that was months ago, and now I was climbing down a damned ravine.

Mr Black offered my cybernetic, but like any man with any sense I refused, outright.

I needed more time with my family plus my cybernetic was working fine.…unless when I considered when the cyber blackouts took place. And one taking place now would be complete shit.