Eric Ruven was sitting across from the female marine, although he had made no attempt to bond with her, or anyone on the flight. Chinooks were loud, and it would make for a yelling match across the chassis of the helicopter. Instead, he put on his hoodie, the only non-military piece of clothing he had, put the hood up, stuffed his blouse into his Kevlar helmet, and went straight to sleep. Being in the Air Force, and used for a lot of Search and Rescue missions, Ruven was accustomed to the hum and drum of helicopters, and found no difficulty into falling asleep, for the entire ride.

	 It wasn’t until the pilot chimed into his ear that they were approaching the landing site that he woke up. He groggily blinked a few times, and reached down, un-blousing his boots. They were down range now, and he was already disregarding several military rules that only served to make deployed life more difficult. He took off the hoodie, and stuffed it into his duffle bag, and put his blouse back on, with the sleeves rolled up to his biceps, exposing his tattoo. He tied the Shemagh around his neck, so he could quickly pull it up over his mouth, and grabbed his ballistic goggles, and put them on, just on his forehead. 

	 Now that he was awake and ready, he took a moment to appraise each person on board. The Chinese scientists were just here for the Alien bullshit, something he really didn’t think he believed yet. The actual soldiers had hate in their eyes, a product of their new world leader position and decades of indoctrination and imperialism. [i]“Yeah? Well fuck you too”[/i], Ruven thought to himself. The Ghurka looked professional, the Libyan looked lost, and indian and his two “friends” in the staring contest looked likely to kill each other as soon as they were left alone.

 	He continued appraising the American Soldier. Seemed cocky with little reason for it, at least, no reason that he could see yet. The Female marine looked a little too hooyah for him. But he figured she’d loosen up on some regulations once she spent enough time down range, most people did eventually. He looked at the Japanese soldier, who brought a sword to a gun fight. And if aliens were involved, probably was going to be a high tech gunfight. Ruven rolled his eyes, not caring if it was noticed. He knew the training and missions he had been on would allow him to hold his own with any of these people, and as far as he could see, he was the only medic. So god help them if they pissed him off, and got a leg blown off.
	
 When the helicopter did touch down, Eric grabbed the Shemagh, and pulled it up over his nose, and his goggles down over his eyes. He picked up his duffle bag, and slung it on his back, and grabbed his rifle, slinging it as well. He clipped on his pistol, and with his medical bags in his right hand, and helmet in his left, he disembarked the helicopter, into the whirling sandstorm. As he passed the U.S. Soldier, he shook his head, in disbelief, seeing his safety off. The chinook engines were too loud to say something to him now, but Ruven was definitely going to say something to him later, when he had a moment.