Parachutes!: Samad The Mat Commando

All characters in this entry are purely fictional. Don't do a Blair Witch Project on me now.

Part 1

Private De Silva looked at his superior, 3rd Sergeant Samad, as their plane swiftly approached their jump point. With that look, he intended to communicate his full confidence in the coming jump.

Sergeant Samad was a tall and lanky Mat, but his physique served to hide his inexhaustible physical fitness. He had 4 years of Commando experience under his belt, and every parachute jump to him was like heading to the void deck for relaxation. More to the point, he was bad at reading tight-lipped smiles and narrowed eyes as reflections of confidence. "You need the toilet?"

"No Sergeant," De Silva replied. He was an Eurasian man, dark and bustling with the muscles of a hardened Commando. He unbuckled his seatbelt. "I can do this smoothly. No mistakes," he said in a tone reflecting his confidence.

"So can I, private!" Sergeant Samad said, and proceeded to unbuckle his seatbelt with style and aplomb.

"Told you so," he added.

Their plane, by then, had circled above the jump point on an offshore Singaporean island (of which information on its whereabouts is highly classified). If you're the kind of person who Logic evades: the jump point is on an offshore island. The plane is in the air above the offshore island.

Commando after commando started to make their jumps, parachutes blooming like bright red or blue flowers a few hundred feet under the C130 (the plane). De Silva had started to feel so confident, thus turning to his sergeant, he asked, "Are the parachutes really mandatory, sergeant?" His intention, again, was to bring across his complete confidence, without, of course, really attempting to jump without a parachute.

Sergeant Samad was a patient man, and would clarify the doubts of his subordinates, however inappropriate the timing might be. He yelled above the sound of rushing air, "No, private. Women can use them too. It's quite womandatory as well."

De Silva, as you one would be able to tell, was even more patient. "No, sarge. I mean, is it compulsary to jump with parachutes?"

Sergeant Samad explained patiently, "Of course it is, private. Can't you see it's raining outside?"

De Silva had a fleeting memory of feeling very bewildered, before being pushed out the door, into the arms of gravity. Shortly after, Sergeant Samad jumped into the open air above Private De Silva, yelling the most interesting warcry ever in the history of the Commando Unit: "AhSialMyParachutesInThePlane!!!"