On The Frontline 2: Bloodshed
It has been 8 months since the night when Captain Steve Rogers earned his place among his fellow soldiers and garnered the nickname "Captain America". Since then, Lieutenant Sam Wilson and Staff Sergeant Frank Castle also became members of their squad, and Bishop was promoted to second-in-command behind Rogers.
It was a late February evening, and Major Ben Grimm was packing his bags for the long trip he would take back home. He had served his time here in Vietnam, and was finally able to go home. "I can't wait to see my sweet ol' Aunt Petunia again, I hope she didn't miss me too much," Ben said to the others as he exited his tent. "And we will miss you too, Ben. I've never found a more generous man in my time in service," Steve replied and he put his arm around Ben's shoulder. Sam butted in, "You said you live on Yancy Street back in New York City, right? That's not far from my dad's church in Brooklyn. Can you stop over there and make sure he's alright?" Ben smiled and took Sam that he would be happy to. "I even have a job back home after I get settled in. An old high school friend of mine Reed Richards told me once I got out of service I'd have a job at his lab helping him out and such. Not as exciting as being out here, but I'll live."
A Jeep pulled up to their base, and as Ben stepped into the vehicle to leave, Wade started to cry. Logan glanced over at Wade and told him to suck it up. Wade wiped his tears and said, "But I always get tear up during moments like this! So touching, makes me want to call my mom and tell her I love her… oh wait, I forgot, she's dead…" Logan rolled his eyes and waved goodbye along with the rest of the men as Ben left the base, beginning his journey home.
The next day, Steve woke up at the crack of dawn, as he always did, and he received a call not long after he awoke. It was Colonel Nick Fury on the other line.
"Rogers, listen up! I have just heard word that you and your men will soon have a new commanding officer. General Thaddeus Ross is set to land at air base in Hanoi in two hours, and then will come to your base shortly thereafter. Over and out."
"Understood, sir. I will inform the others and prepare his room right away," replied Rogers.
After Steve told the men of the new addition to their squad, a few of men groaned.
"I heard that guy once court marshaled some poor dingbat for walking off his post to take a piss," Clint said.
"Looks like I'm gonna be third in command again…" Bishop retorted with a depressed tone in his voice.
"There are reasons why he's called Thunderbolt… and none of very good." Remy said.
"I didn't even think anyone he worked with had made it back home in one piece!" Deadpool chimed in.
Everyone had something to say except for Frank Castle, who clinched his fist so tightly that his arm started to shake.
A few hours later, as expected, another Jeep pulled up to the base. A tall, aging man stepped out of the vehicle slowly and walked to the base with authority. Steve looked at Thaddeus' face: it was wrinkled and there was a visible scar along his cheek from an old war wound. His eyes looked almost soulless; he had clearly seen much in his tenure as a commanding officer. Captain Rogers held his hand out to greet General Ross. Ross obliged, looking straight into his eyes and not changing his rather emotionless expression. "I have not been here longer than two seconds and I see so many violations of regulation, I could discharge you all." Steve was surprised and said, "Whatever it is, we can fix it as soon as possible—" Ross interrupted him and stated everything that was wrong, and as Rogers followed the general around, Clint whispered into Steve's quickly, "I told ya so." Steve wanted tell Clint to shut up but Ross yelled at Rogers and told him to keep up. For what seemed like the entire afternoon, the squad rushed around the base making sure everything was to Ross' standards.
They all ate their supper quickly, and once Ross went to bed shortly afterwards, the only thing the squad could talk was the General. "I never thought we were doing anything wrong…" Rogers said with his hands holding his head. "Relax," Wade said, "We weren't. It's just that Ross is a prick." "And how," Bishop chimed in.
"You think this is bad, you haven't even worked with him on the frontlines."
Logan, Steve, and the others looked around to see who said that, and Logan saw it was Frank Castle. "Wait,wait,wait,wait! You fought alongside him?!" Wade said. Frank swallowed spit, took a breath, and told the men his story.
"It's something I would rather like to forget. It back in the Korean War, ol' Thaddeus and I went through boot camp together. Once we were put on the frontlines, we succeeded and completed every mission with flying colors. We shot so many men back in the day they could build a dozen morgues. Then the day came where our mission was to secure a small village near Seoul and detain an arms dealer who had taken refuge there. It was me and Thaddeus, along with Gabe Jones, Dum Dum Dugan, and Jack Kirby. Those guys were the best, they died too young…" Frank took a moment and continued.
"…We got to the town and of course, the weapons dealer resisted. Gabe used a flamethrower to "coax" him out, and when he ran out, he had a gun in each hand. Killed Gabe, shot Dugan in the leg. He ran into an open field and Thaddeus was the first to chase him, I ran over to Gabe to see if he was alive. He…died in my arms… Thaddeus had a fire in his eyes like I had never seen before. He shot the man so many times his grandmother wouldn't recognize him. Doing so blew our cover, and the whole village started shooting at us, fearing we were North Korean soldiers recruiting more men for the cause. A few dozen men starting shooting at us. I told Thaddues that we should fall back, we had completed our mission, we didn't want to kill innocent people who were simply protecting themselves. Thaddeus said we were weak and he went on a one man crusade, killing everyone in the village… Men, women… children. "
"He received a Silver Star for that. Gabe was sent home in a body bag, and Dugan took a desk job. None of us were the same after that day."
Steve's jaw was almost on the floor, and Clint just looked at Frank and said, "Why didn't any of you turn him in? He was violating international laws of war conduct!" "Those laws weren't as enforced back then, and the others except for me threw the whole thing under the rug. I never forgot that day." Frank replied. "After the Korean War, Dugan and Kirby left the military to have a good life. Thaddeus and I also settled down, but we stayed in the military. I made sure I stayed as far away as I could from Ross once I was put back in action. I lead my own faction close to where we are all standing now, and I was captured along with the rest of my men. And that unhappy coincidence has lead to me having to share the same air with him… and it makes me sick."
Wade, amazed at what Frank had just said, interjected, "From a man that cut off a guy's head with a rusty knife to say Ross is evil…that's sayin' something."
No one spoke another word about it and they all went to bed with a much different perspective of General Ross.
The next few weeks went by without many problems. Remy felt utterly bored as no one had any injuries except for some nasty mosquito bites. Frank never said a word to Ross and made every opportunity to avoid contact. Bishop managed to get an old Vietkong plane the squad had seized a few months earlier from a raid and bring it back to its former glory and showed it to Sam Wilson, who looked at it like it was Christmas morning back home. Things seemed to be going smoothly, until one afternoon when Ross left his tent, where he stayed much of the day, and called all the men to brief them on a new mission. Ross brought them all into his tent, where he had a map of the Mekong River and the surrounding area, and bellowed out the news:
"All right, listen up! We have reason to believe that there are Vietkong soldiers transporting something very important along the Mekong River not far from here. Your mission is to intercept them and take whatever it is they don't want us to know about."
Steve was the first to speak. "We have a vessel that can most of us through the water. I think we would have a better tactical advantage if Lieutenant Wilson take the plane Bishop fixed up and fly above our position and scout ahead to see if the Vietnamese have anything up their sleeve."
"A wise decision, Captain." Ross replied. "I also want our sniper Bullseye over here," he pointed at a place on the map where the river bent at nearly a 90 degree angle. "I want us to cover all bases on this. Whatever they have on there, even the president wants to know what it is. I will be joining you men so I can personally monitor the situation. So let's not f**k this up, men! Do you read me?"
All the men except Frank replied, "Sir, yes sir!"
Closer to the Mekong River, a strange man looked out of place walking along the river with some Vietkong soldiers. He was wearing a hood that covers half of his face, and one of the sleeves on his cloak was longer than the other, hiding his right hand. The man asked the Vietkong soldiers if they were prepared for the transaction. One of the Vietkong troops, presumably the commander, replied, "Yes, we are, Mr. Williams. We have everything accounted for. The money is secured and there is nothing that could intercept our arrangement."
All of a sudden, the man threw off his cloak and revealed his right hand was replaced with a prosthetic one fitted with blades that retracted once he turned back to the soldier. "Do you realize how important this is? Do you know how much we have changed our usual policies for your convenience?! My master Baron Von Strucker and HYDRA will not be pleased if you do not have every contingency accounted for. The boat traveling along this river will arrive with your package soon, and I suggest you pray that everything goes according to plan."
"I understand, sir. I am very sorry, Mister Williams, I will make sure—"
"Just call me the Grim Reaper, because this hand will be the last thing you see if you fail today."
Soon after Ross and his men prepped the vessel to travel along the Mekong River, Sam Wilson was able to get his plane up in the air and he followed the vessel down the river to where they believed the Vietnamese were. Wilson then traveled ahead to give the others a situation report.
"Lieutenant Wilson to Captain Rogers, report."
"Captain Rogers—"
Ross took the radio away from Steve and said, "General Ross speaking, what are we looking at here?"
"There appear to be several small groups of soldiers stationed along the river. Further ahead is a large boat with what looks like a symbol. A serpent or an octopus, I can't tell at this time. They have a really big package covered by a tarp,sir."
"Good. Continue scouting the area. Over and out!"
Ross ordered Logan to steer the ship carefully and told Captain Rogers to stay at the starboard side. Wade and Clint stood at the front of the ship and looked for any soldiers who wished to ambush them, and Bishop and Matt were along the port side of the ship at the mounted gatling guns.
Meanwhile, Reaper was sitting at his tent waiting for the HYDRA ship to arrive so the transaction could be complete. Suddenly, a HYDRA soldier ran to him and told him that a scout had spotted a non-friendly plane overhead. Reaper came out his tent and got on the radio. "Toomes! Beck! You know what to do."
Wilson didn't see anything sketchy in the area besides what he already saw until he flanked right and noticed something near his blind spot. It was surprisingly a man with wings, flying quickly toward the plane. Sam was about to radio the ship when the man flew right at the nose of the plane. Toomes obstructed his view long enough that in order to get the winged man off his plane, Sam took a sudden nosedive. Steve noticed this and rushed to the radio.
"Sam! SAM! What's going on up there? Anti-aircraft?"
"Something I never thought I'd see, Captain! It's some guy with wings flying around my plane!"
Ross, hearing this, walked to the radio and said to Rogers, "If your pilot is correct, then our situation just got a lot worse." "What do you mean?" Steve replied. Ross simply said, "It means we have HYDRA agents to deal with."
Sam struggled with straightening out his plane, and Toomes came back to swoop in again. "Now you're going down, you freak!" Sam said as he fired his front guns at Toomes. He managed to hit the winged man, and Toomes spiraled down to the river. Sam let out a cheer and radioed Steve that the situation was under control.
However, the small battle up above had alerted the Vietkong and HYDRA soldiers that they were American forces closing in on their location. Several Vietkong troops revealed themselves from the dense jungle that surrounded the river and started shooting at the ship. Clint and Wade immediately got down and prepared to retaliate. Matt and Bishop unloaded hundreds of rounds from their gatling guns firing at the Vietkong soldiers.
Meanwhile, HYDRA agent Quentin Beck had reached the Vietkong soldiers that were engaged with the American ship. He wore a strange costume with a dome encasing his head. He pulled out a strange weapon and shot a grenade-like canister at the ship, landing on the port side of the ship. The canister contracted and released a hallucinogenic gas all around the ship. Bishop started seeing double and got shot in the shoulder, falling to the floor. Matt didn't know what had happened to Bishop, for the gas had not affected him, since the gas only affects a person's sight. Matt kept shooting at the soliders.
Meanwhile, Clint and Wade were engaging the Vietkong soldiers. Wade was mowing down the enemy holding dual machine guns while Clint was firing arrows. Clint then left and quickly returned another quiver, and the first arrow he pulled out had a stick of dynamite tied to it. Wade cocked his eyebrow and asked, "Who did you make those? I want one!" "The idea just came to me. Now help me light it!" Clint replied. Wade struck a match and lit the arrow and Clint shot it at two Vietnamese soldiers, killing them on impact. Clint smirked and continued shooting dynamite arrows. At the edge of the river, Beck shot another canister at the ship, and it landed right where Clint and Wade were. This time, it was an active grenade. Wade spotted it first and pushed Clint out of the way. Wade turned quickly to kick it off the ship, but it exploded sooner than he thought it would. Wade was far enough away that the explosion didn't kill him, but it threw him back and set him ablaze. Steve ran towards Wade hearing the loud explosion and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Steve doused Wade with the extinguisher but it was too late. Wade's face was covered with third degree burns. Clint told Steve to get Wade someplace safe, and Steve carried him to the hull. Logan saw what happened and took some extra gauze and tape from a first aid kit to wrap Wade's face up. "I don't think he's going to make it," Logan said. "It doesn't matter, we still need to help him!" Steve replied .
After tending to Wade, Steve got back to the exterior of the ship and stave off the Vietkong, when all of a sudden Beck shot another grenade at the ship. The grenade exploded underneath Steve's position, and he fell off the ship. Instinctively, Steve swam to shore and once he got out of the water, a Vietkong solider ran at him with a bayonette to kill him. Steve blocked the soldier's attack and took out his own knife to stab him. Steve then stole the man's gun and shot Beck in the chest a few times, and a few more once Beck hit the ground to ensure he was dead. Rogers yelled out to Clint that he was going to scout ahead. Clint yelled back that he would inform Ross about it.
The Grim Reaper was relieved to see the HYDRA ship arrive and told the Vietnamese commander to give him the money now and they would wheel out the package for him. The Vietnamese commander ordered one of his men to retrieve the suitcase of money. As the Vietnamese soldier returned with the briefcase, Steve was close enough to the HYDRA and Vietkong troops that he could see Reaper take the briefcase and order the men aboard the HYDRA ship to bring out the package. Steve fired a few shots at the Reaper, who dodged them by rolling out of the way. "Kill the American!" Grim Reaper said as the Vietkong soldiers opened fire on Rogers. Off in the distance, a few faint shots were heard, and all of a sudden all of the Vietkong soldiers, including the commander, were dead. Steve looked out towards the other side of the river and remembered Ross' battle plan: He knew who made the shots. The HYDRA ship continued to dock while Steve ran at the Grim Reaper. He kept firing at the one-handed man until Reaper used his bladed hand to knock the gun out of Steve's hand and throw him at a nearby tree. Steve got right back up and the two engaged in combat.
Meanwhile, as the HYDRA ship docked, Lieutenant Wilson flew towards the enemy ship and fired at the hull and port side of the ship before passing it and turning around for another run. This distracted the Grim Reaper long enough for Steve to land an uppercut and knock the villain down to the ground.
Back on the ship, the gas had subsided and Bishop got up off the ground holding his shoulder. Matt helped Bishop walk to the hull of the ship where Wade lain unconscious on the floor. Bishop shrugged Matt off, saying he "wasn't done yet", and grabbed a gun to continue fighting. The only problem was there were no more men to fight except the men aboard the HYDRA ship. Ross told Logan to turn the ship to its side so Matt and Bishop could fire the gatling guns at the enemy. Frank Castle walked out to the front of the ship instead with a rocket launcher and fired it at the enemy ship. The rocket did serious damage to the ship. Clint helped Frank reload, and after four rockets, the enemy ship was compromised and all the men aboard were either dead or unconscious.
Ross walked out to the front of the ship and yelled at Frank. "What in the hell were you thinking?!" Frank just looked at Ross and said, "I just saved your ass a lot of trouble, you should thank me." Before Ross could answer, out of the corner of his eye he noticed Steve and the Grim Reaper still fighting near the dock. Ross, knowing that Frank wouldn't follow his orders, looked at Bishop and told him to shoot at Reaper, but he refused because Steve was too close to him.
"He is an enemy of the state and a leader of HYDRA, shoot him goddamn it! That is an order!"
"You know if I do, I could kill Captain Rogers."
"I don't care if it meant the Queen of England gets shot in the process, do it or you'll be dishonorably discharged!"
Bishop still refused, and back on the shore, Grim Reaper sucker punched Steve and ran away into the jungle, knowing he would be captured if he were to stay there.
The American ship docked next to the HYDRA ship, and while Clint and Logan went inside the HYDRA ship to search for possible survivors, Ross started yelling at Bishop and Frank for their failure. Steve tried to chime in and said, "We still completed the mission, with all due respect, sir. We prevented the Vietnamese from getting a hold of that weapon."
"I don't give a damn about the mission at this point!" Ross turned back at Bishop and Frank. "You two just let a criminal wanted by the US government for over 100 counts of terrorism escape when you had the perfect opportunity to kill him!"
Bishop looked at Ross straight in the eye and said, "If you haven't got it through your think skull, OLD MAN, we weren't able to get a clear shot, SIR." Steve tried to tell Bishop to stop before he upset Ross anymore, but Bishop put his hand up towards Steve and continued, "And another thing! I have never seen a commanding officer care so little about his comrades that he would risk the death of one of his men just to put another medal on the jacket! With all due respect, sir, you can go f**k yourself!" Ross, in a fit of furious anger, pulled out his gun and said, "Haven't you heard about respecting authority!" Ross quickly put the gun to Bishop's chest and pulled the trigger.
Bishop fell to the floor, and Steve immediately rushed to Bishop to see if he was dead. He looked up at Ross and said, "You monster!"
"I'm a monster? I'm a monster!? I'll tell you who the real monster is. He's out there! In the jungle! Running away from American justice! The prize on his head and the importance of his capture is more important than any of you alive! If you so much as make me believe that for one second ANY of you will directly violate my orders again, and I swear to God, you will the same fate this piece of sh—"
BLAM!
"I think it's time for you to retire, Thaddeus."
Frank put away his smoking gun and walked away as Steve stood up and exclaimed, "What did you just do?!"
"I just did you all a favor. He would have killed you all if you didn't realize. He had the same look in his eyes as when I saw him shoot a child's head clean off back in Korea. He's in a better place now, at least for people like him. We'll tell the guys back home he died a hero, it'll give his wife and kid back home a nice pension to live out their lives. They shouldn't suffer for his mistakes."
Steve ultimately agreed with Frank, and they tossed Ross' corpse into the Mekong River,then sailed back to the base. Wade was patched up the best that Remy could possibly do. Wade was eventually sent back home, his face would never be the same again. Bishop's body was also sent back to the States, where funerals for both Bishop and Ross were held shortly afterwards. Both were given postmortem medal of honor and Purple Hearts. Frank retired from active duty.
Steve, Bullseye, Matt, Clint, and Sam were the only ones left. They continued serving their country throughout the rest of the war.
A few days after Ross was killed, his body was still floating in the river. Eventually it floated in front of the HYDRA base, and a few HYDRA agents pulled the corpse out of the water and brought it to their superior. "Master Zola! We have found a body in the water!"
Arnim Zola slowly walked towards the body and instantly recognized it. He thanked the man for their discovery and told them him wanted to be alone with the body.
"So the infamous General Thunderbolt lies in front of me, dead as a doornail," Arnim cackled. "I have improved my study on molecular reanimation since I last tangled with you and your men in Korea, General. I think I'm going to have lots of fun transforming you from the greatest symbol of the American military… into the greatest weapon that HYDRA will ever have."
"Heil HYDRA."
-End-