Gypsy and Patrick couldn’t believe they had been given their Ph.D.’s for their work on the power body armor. Then after they had received their degree’s they were requested to come to the base commander’s office, where two Admirals, three General’s and one Major were waiting for them. The General’s and Admiral's were with the Department of Special Operations Command.

They had been the men that had been watching them from a distance. General Barry Lindsay wanted to add them to his staff and use the body armors for a special mission. Gypsy and Patrick informed them that the suits weren’t fully tested yet.

Yes, if they got in a firefight with a bunch of soldiers, the suits could more than likely hold its own. However, there was still plenty of test and research they needed to do with the suits first. She and Patrick didn’t want to jeopardize the lives of the wear’s of the body armor.

When the General said he needed their help to rescue a team of American soldiers in Africa. They got together with the others and asked them if they would want to undertake the mission to rescue those American soldiers. They weren’t going to do the mission unless everyone agreed.

Since the body armors were already black. All they would have to do is give it a camo painting, to help blend in. It took the group a while to decide if they wanted to take up the mission.

Patrick and Gypsy were going to observe from a Command base, while Nathan and his team go out and rescue the soldiers. They also put in the suit a self-destruct switch, just in case they got captured or the suit became damaged beyond repair.

Gypsy and Patrick look at the new apartments that the government had given them in Tampa, Florida. Gypsy’s new apartment was one floor up and over Patrick’s. General Barry Wright had said that the government would pay for their apartment’s in exchange for them working in Special Projects.

As for the research facilities, it was a combination of research lab and indoor testing and was located at MacDill AFB, Florida. The base was located 4 miles south-southeast from Tampa, Florida. They were classified as civilian contractors, doing research for Special Operations.

They were going to send Nathan, Sharon, Robert, and Dominic to Africa to rescue the American soldiers. Gypsy and the gang go over each armor, making sure everything was in tip-top working order. Patrick and Robert were updating the onboard navigation system and satellite link, so they could stay in contact. Nathan and Dominic were laying out safe zones where a helicopter could come in and pick them up. Also, they were going over the secondary jet packs. They were going to go in under darkness and rescue the troops.

Once the suits were prepared and ready. They board a plane and fly to Africa. Gypsy was nervous as she sat with the soldiers that were coming with them for support. Nathan was wide awake, but Patrick was catching some sleep.

“Nervous?” One of the soldiers that had come to protect her and Patrick was looking at Gypsy.

“Yeah, I’m nervous because I’m about to send people I call friends out in these armors.” Gypsy gets up and walks over to the first one she and Patrick built. It happened to be Nathan’s.

“So, you are the creator of these things?” Kingston looks at the suit.

“Me and my partner, Patrick. We constructed these suits for you guys, from a DARPA grant we were given.” Gypsy walks over to the next one, which was Sharon’s.

“Do you doubt that they will work?”

“No, I know they will work. The worry I have is that they haven’t been tested under combat conditions. I don’t want them to let down my friends.” Gypsy just looks at them.

She checks the smaller gauss rifles for her and Patrick. They were based on the same design as the first gauss rifles for the suits.

“What are those?” King had never seen the rifle Gypsy was holding.

“Gauss rifles. I built them for me and my partner.”

“Do you mind if I hold it?” Kingston had never seen anything like it before.

“No, go ahead.” She hands the one she was holding to him.

He looks at it and goes over it. He looks over at the Gypsy “how much of a kick does it have?”

“Very little. The bigger ones have more of a kick to them, then these.”

“I could get uses to carrying this.” Kingston liked the weight of it and wonders what it felt like to fire it.

“I doubt the military will switch over to these any time soon. They still have plenty of slug throwers and ammo to go with them.” Gypsy knows her gauss rifle will be a turn off to the government.

After a while, they land and are transferred to a helicopter and flown out to where they were going to drop the suits. Gypsy and Patrick help each team member suit up and double check everything.

“You guys be careful and remember, let the suit do the work.” Gypsy watches as they jumped out of the helicopter and fly down on their jet packs.

Patrick turns on his tablet and watches as each member landed safely. The next thing they know, Nathan and Dominic come under fire. Sharon And Robert head towards the captured soldiers.

Gypsy could tell that the Islamic extremist that were holding the soldiers and civilians didn’t know what to make of the suits. Some of them tried to take protection behind walls and vehicles. The gauss rifle round, just cut through the material like a hot knife through butter.

The helicopter lands and start taking on the soldiers and civilians they came to rescue. Gypsy helps with any of the wounded they had. Patrick comes over and helps as well. As they were loading the helicopter, several extremists start shooting towards them. Patrick and Gypsy grab their gauss rifles and shoot a three-round burst towards them.

The extremists that were taking cover behind trees and a few vehicles figure they were safe. When they got hit behind their cover in the chest area. They were surprised as they dropped dead. One of the flecthes from the gauss rifle caused a grenade to go off, blowing the person up.

“We got incoming from the front of us.” Patrick was being pinned down from weapon fire from in front of the helicopter.

“Don’t worry kids. I got you covered.” Nathan comes running towards them and leaped at the last second clearing the turning blades. He drops
down in the front of the helicopter and opened fire with his rifle.

“Gypsy, Patrick get inside the chopper and take off. We’ll provide cover and join you, once you’re in the air.” Dominic's voice comes over their radio.

Gypsy and Patrick get inside the helicopter and brace themselves as they start taking off. Once the helicopter reaches a certain height, the body armors activate their jet packs and fly upwards, while still laying down cover fire with the rifles. They hover right into the helicopter. One of the medics that came with them closes the door on the helicopter and as it headed towards an aircraft carrier waiting nearby for them

Gypsy and Patrick go over towards Dominic and the others to check their armor. They look on the outside of the armor for any sign of penetration.

“Did any of their weapons penetrate the body armor?” Gypsy was worried that her friends might have been hurt.

“Nope, nothing penetrated the armor. I think those soldiers were surprised when their weapons proved ineffective against us. I know one of them was surprised when the gauss round went through the vehicle he was hiding behind.” Sharon had a smile on her face from thinking about it.

“What’s everyone’s ammo and power levels like?” Gypsy wonders how many ammo magazines they went through.

“I got two magazines left.” Sharon shows hers.

“I’m almost out.” Nathan looks towards Dominic “how many do you have left?”

“I got half a magazine left.” Dominic hadn’t realized he went through his magazines as fast he did.

“How about you, Robert?” Gypsy looks at him.

“I have two left as well. All our power levels are within normal range. We still have enough for seven more hours of use.” Robert had access to all the armors.

They land on the aircraft carrier and the injured are escorted off the helicopter and to medical, along with them. The body armors are taken to one of the flight hangars to be recharged and prep. All data from the onboard computer is downloaded to Patrick’s tablet and upload to the secure cloud account he and Gypsy had.

They would go over the combat footage later and see if they needed to make any adjustments to the body armor systems. They know the General of special operations would want to see the footage for himself.