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It was early morning, it was still dark and quite cold, late autumn always seemed that way due to winds. Archer was riding in the commander's seat of the LAV he wasn't really paying too much attention due to another sleepless night he had, in any case it was the guys in the lead humvee who had to watch the front. Corporal Anthony Meltin was one of them. He had been a spotter back in his scout sniper days he had good eyes.

Cap I'm seeing some movement in front, came the corporals voice over the radio, ''ext's? '' Don't think so Sir ''OK all stop, Corporal dismount and scout ahead''. Not ten minutes had passed when a smiling corporal came out of the bend in the road with a scruffy looking man holding a beat up riffle. Archer jumped out of the turret and headed for the 2 approaching men. ''Captain Samuel Archer United States Marines Force Recon'' Archer extended his hand towards the man, Tom Mason the man replied and shook Archer's hand. ''Are you alone Mr. Mason? '' there's a whole horde of people just over that ridge Sir the corporal budged in. ''Are you the leader of this gang Mr. Mason? '' just Tom and no the man replied. ''OK take me to your leader, men defensive postures stay here, King you're in charge'' Archer gave the command to his XO who had just pulled up, Lt. King used to be a tech guy for the expeditionary marines , but he was also Archer's best friend and second highest ranking officer.

The camp was about 5 minutes walk from the marines position it was well fortified, considering and like the corporal said there seemed to be a lot of people roaming about. They walked into a big tent there was a man in a camouflage jacket. Captain weaver this is Captain Archer with a group of Marines, Mason introduced Archer '' Captain so you're in charge of this ragged group I need your permission to bring in my vehicles '' Vehicles the man named Weaver seemed surprised '' we have 2 humvee's one LAV and 2 Stryker's with the Texas national guard we have 40 people most of them are my expeditionary marines but we picked up some national guardsmen along the way. Most of my men are tired and in need of rest, just 2 days ago we engaged a large group of extraterrestrial's we lost a Abrams tank and 2 Stryker's morale is all time low since they had to scavenge ammo and supplies from their dead friends''. Weaver seemed to way his options and then nodded OK move your units in we'll talk later. After just a couple of hours the group had set up camp and were already grabbing shut eye, not Archer though there was another sleepless night in front of him , so he decided to maintain his equipment.