The night was still, clouds scattered, the moon hung low, resembled a giant lantern among the ocean of little glittering stars. The moist from a shower earlier today made the canopy of the forest glistened as the moonlight relentlessly tried to penetrate the thick canopy. A soft thunderous noise was heard from afar. It soon grew louder as the twin-rotor Chinook approached from south.

"Okay gentlemen, 2 minutes to drop-off. Remember, we’re not playing around with some god-damn blanks this time, this is as real as it gets, grab hold of the subject and we’ll get the hell outta there," Major George Lim’s words were captured by a mic embedded in his helmet and were instantly transmitted digitally to his men sporting the same helmet.

Maj Lim did not have to scream in order to make himself heard in the Chink but he found it weird to hear his own amplified voice so clearly through the mini speaker, also embedded in this new DSO product. The Defence Science Organisation was beaming with pride with their latest baby. Besides doing what a normal helmet should do, this state-of-the-art helmet had a built-in secured digital radio com set. Being digitally secure meant that massages were not only crystal clear over an effective range of up to 5-km radius, they would also be digitally encrypted by a 256-bit encryption technology, making it impossible to tap. When needed, the night vision goggles hidden in the front of the helmet would slide down to aid the soldier’s vision in complete darkness. The goggles featured zooming capability, thus, doubled as a binocular and it also had a laser range finder. "The only thing we fail to do is to make it bulletproof," one DSO scientist was heard saying.

The Chinook had effectively destroyed the serenity of the night. It was flying precariously low to avoid ground-based radar detection. The pilot and co-pilot both donned night-vision goggles as its own radar was switched off—all lights, including the blinking aircraft warning lights at the exterior were also switched off—again, to avoid detection. Flying just 3 meters above the trees, the glistening treetops looked like spots of white against a ghostly green and black background through the NVGs.

"ETA to target drop-zone, oh four zero seconds, get ready to execute Operation SPIDER," the pilot announced.

"Roger that, Cap’tn! Thanks for the ride," Maj Lim replied as he signaled a thumb-up to his men.

"You’re welcome sir! And good luck!"

The Chink started to descend toward the clearing as its rear ramp slowly opened. The Chink hovered steadily just above the grassland as the tall blades rustled and licked the under belly of the Chink. The soldiers were quick, leaping off the ramp three by three to secure the area. As soon as the last men of the team leaped off the ramp, the Chink began to rise and retract its ramp. The Chink then tilted forward and began its 10 minutes journey back to Singapore airspace.

Once back in Singapore’s airspace, the Chink radioed back to the Board, " Tango two-five to Castle, Tango two-five to Castle, Operation SPIDER has commenced, over."

"Castle to Tango two-five, roger, wait-out for pick-up and go as planned, over," the CDF responded.

[In The Woods]