I will be going through and editing/updating chapters from the beginning. If there is interest, I will continue from where the story was left off.
Please note that this story was started before MW3 was released, so this will deviate from the canon of the series. The setting starts with MW2 and continues into what would be the Third World War.
For all the new readers, hope you enjoy this take on the Modern Warfare story.
Administrative Building C7
19:28 Local Time
The constant crack of gunfire added to the shouts, screams, and death that echoed throughout the hallway. The dull grey walls were riddled with bullet holes and in some spots, where grenades had detonated, chunks of plaster and drywall about the ground. Painstaking progress had yielded only two floors cleared in the last hour: and there were still three more in this building alone. The men inching their way through the building knew that once this building was cleared, there were at least a dozen more waiting them as they progressed further in the port facility.
Ducking behind the wall he was against, the squad leader glanced at his team behind him and shouted, "Get on your SAW and lay down some goddamn fire!"
One of the Marines hustled to the front of the column and peered around the corner. Fifteen meters down the hall he could see several Russian soldiers peering around what cover they had. He quickly returned to cover as a hail of bullets poured from the Russian guns.
"Are you waiting for an invitation," the squad leader questioned, "Use your weapon Marine."
"Christ this is suicide," the gunner mumbled as he went prone and leaned his upper body to the right.
A volley of rounds quickly zipped from his rifle tearing into the Russian positions. Their heads dropped below the cover as one of their comrades fell to the ground missing a part of his forehead.
"Go," the gunner shouted as he fired another volley down the hallway pinning the Russians down.
The squad leader leaned from cover over top of the gunner and tossed a grenade down the hallway followed quickly by a second. A third Marine moved from the column and tossed a third grenade down the hallway. The Marines retreated behind the cover of the corner after throwing, and moments later the sounds of explosions echoed throughout the hallway. Chunks of wall, debris, and body parts flew across the hallway leaving a fine cloud of dust hanging in the air as the Marines burst from their position towards the Russians, firing several rounds each into the last known positions of the Russians they raced towards.
As they overran the Russian position, only one was found to be still in the land of the living. The Russian's left leg had been blown apart by the exploding grenades. Blood splattered against the wall and was now pooling at the gory stump that was left just above where his knee was moments before. The stubble on his face was all but obscured by the dirt, cuts, and blood that now adorned it. The screams and shouts were quickly silenced by a burst of fire as the Marines moved passed the position and continued towards the fighting that lay ahead of them.
"Holy shit," the gunner exclaimed as the team entered a room and found it void of hostiles, "Did you see that guy's leg?"
"Hell yeah, damn thing was blown clean the –"
"Heffron, Reily," the squad leader angrily shouted as he heard the two Marines let their focus go elsewhere, "Shut your fucking mouths."
"Christ Eric," the gunner, Lance Corporal Marcus Heffron argued back, "What crawled up your ass?"
The squad leader stormed across the small room towards Heffron, "What's up my ass," he shouted inches from Heffron's face, "We've lost twelve Marines in the last hour in this building alone and you're making jokes about the fucking Russians who killed them."
The silence in the room was broken only by the rushing of boots and Marines past the door towards the fighting. The words sunk into each of the Marines in the room.
"Now get your game face on and let's go kill the rest of these bastards," the squad leader said with a feint smirk.
Staff Sergeant Eric Pierce exited the room to join the other Marines moving through the hallway, "Saber Two, Saber Two-One, third floor is clear, how copy?"
The third Marine in the room, Corporal Thomas Barnes, approached Heffron and patted him on the shoulder, "You really are a dumbass sometimes you know," he said laughing as he exited the room and joined the squad leader.
"I thought it was cool, reminded me of that dude we found in Afghanistan," Lance Corporal Sean Reily said as the two finally left the room.
The four Marines entered the stairwell and continued up two flights of stairs to the fifth floor. Below them on the fourth, Marines from 1st Platoon were pitted against a squad sized force of Russians who fought for every inch of space.
Pierce nodded towards his team, and with the training and precision they had practiced for years, burst through the stairwell onto the floor.
"Clear right," Reily shouted first through the breach, followed closely by Barnes and the remainder of the team.
With the area clear for the moment, the four man team quickly moved down the hallway and took positions covering the door as more Marines from the company poured through. A second fireteam moved past Pierce and his men as they took point moving down the hallway. The dull grey walls and windowless hallways created a maze that disoriented some of the Marines as to which direction the Russians were.
Clad in desert MARPAT fatigues with vital areas covered by his Modular Tactical Vest and lightweight helmet, Pierce carried more than thirty-five pounds of protective gear as he followed the fireteam down the hall. Gripping his M4A1 attached with an M203 grenade launcher, the sergeant was a fierce looking warrior who had proved himself time and again in combat over the years.
"Door comin' up," the leading sergeant said.
The fireteam stacked up on the door as Pierce and his team took an overwatch position around them. The door to the room was kicked in, breaking the bolt and sending the door swinging inward. The four man team was through the door in a matter of seconds, only to be cut down by a hail of gunfire emanating from the back corner of the room. Several Russians were barricaded behind cover with their weapons focused on the only entrance to the room.
"Jesus," Barnes shouted as the gunfire erupted from the room a mere meter from him, "Contact right!"
Two of the Marines had survived the initial burst of gunfire and were now screaming in agony as blood gushed from their wounds. Instinctively, Barnes and Reily reached for the wounded Marines and dragged them from the doorway back towards the group. A corpsman was already racing forward to aid the two men.
The hallway now filled with shouts as the Marines reacted to the new threat that had emerged from the room. The wounded Marines were passed back towards the others, leaving Pierce and his team on point for the group.
"Tommy, Sean," Pierce shouted, "Frag 'em on my go."
The three Marines stacked up against the wall, Barnes, Pierce, then Reily, and each removed a frag grenade from their combat webbing.
Pierce nodded his head, "Do it."
The three pulled the pins from their grenades and waited a moment before Barnes lobbed his grenade through the doorway. He quickly moved off the wall allowing Pierce to throw his grenade through the door. Pierce followed the same motion as Barnes and allowed Reily to toss his grenade last through the opening. A moment later, an explosion rocked the room followed quickly by a second and third. Waiting a moment after the final explosion, the tea burst into the room firing into the Russian positon.
Dust obscured the room as the Marines converged on the Russian position. The lights had been blown by the explosions, severely limiting their vision as they swarmed the room.
"Clear left," Barnes shouted.
"Clear right," Reily echoed.
The Russian position had been devastated by the explosions, the tables and desks used for cover had been blown apart and the bodies that scattered the area were missing an assortment of limbs and appendages. Pools of blood formed underneath the bodies staining the carpet a dark maroon. Pierce looked across the room and could see that it was stocked with boxes of munitions and weapons that could have been rigged to explode at any moment. He was frankly surprised that the grenades had not detonated the ordinance stocked in the room.
"Tommy clear out, the rooms still hot," he said looking at the munitions and not wanting to risk a secondary explosion with his team in the room.
The team exited the room followed several seconds later by Pierce. The two dead Marines had been moved from the area back towards the stairwell along with the wounded.
"Saber Two, this is Two-One," Pierce began.
"Two-One this is Two, send it."
"We have four men down, two wounded, two K.I.A. over."
"Two copies all, continue the sweep, out."
Pierce looked down the hallway, behind him were fifteen trained, and heavily armed Marines crouched against the wall waiting to move forward. He took a deep breath before patting Barnes on his shoulder. This was the sign to move forward. Barnes got to his feet and began walking forward, hugging the right wall, weapon trained forward.
Several rooms were passed and each were cleared of Russians using a similar strategy, careful to not repeat the mistake of the first room. One of the wounded Marines had died as he was being carried down the stairwell towards evac, bringing the number of K.I.A. on the floor to three.
Barnes carefully approached the last door on the floor which was cracked open ever so slightly. Inside, he could hear rustling and the murmur of voices. He stopped and held up his left hand in a fist, stopping the column of Marines.
"What'd you wanna do Eric," he whispered to Pierce behind him.
"Easy or hard way?"
Barnes turned his head left slightly so he could see Pierce from the corner of his eye. A smirk appeared on Barnes' face, "Easy way."
Pierce smiled as he pulled a frag from his webbing as Barnes did the same. Pierce moved forward next to Barnes, removing the pin from the grenade and releasing the spoon as Barnes reached forward and pushed the door inward.
The grenade bounced off the wall of the room and settled on the floor behind the Russians. After Pierce through his grenade, Barnes tossed his own into the room. Again, explosions rocked the building as the interior of the room was turned to a cloud of grey dust. The fireteam entered the room with weapons raised, ready for contact, but they were met with none. More Russians lay dead in the room, and with that, the fifth floor of the building was cleared. The team exited the room and met again with the Marines in the hallway. A large window shown north, showing the buildings that still needed to be cleared of Russian presence.
Pierce toggled his headset, "Saber Two, Two-One, fifth floor is clear over."
The platoon commander responded, "Two-One, Two Actual, good work. Sixth floor has been cleared by Saber Three, how copy?"
"Solid copy Two, which building is next on the list," Pierce asked as he looked out the window towards the remaining buildings.
"None of them Two-One, Scarface Actual has ordered airstrikes on the remaining buildings, too many casualties at the current pace."
The response was both a blessing and a curse, no more fighting for now, but far too many Marines had died so far and command didn't want to risk anymore men.
"ETA on airstrikes Two," Pierce asked.
"Sixty seconds Two-One, hunker down, Two out."
Pierce called for his team to meet in front of the window to watch the inbound airstrikes. The dozen buildings that lay before them varied in size, each filled with Russian infantry. Heffron was in the middle of saying something when the first bomb landed, followed by countless more. The shockwave blew out the window but left the team unscathed except for a cut on Reily's face. The rumbling and noise of the explosions caused the team to hunker down and wait it out.
Two minutes later, after the dust had cleared, what lay before them was a wasteland. A dozen buildings had been flattened by the bombs and the remains jutted from the ground in a mess of concrete, steel, and piping.
"Holy shit," Barnes remarked as he looked at the devastation before him.
The Marines crowded the window, looking in shock at the destruction before them, but Pierce was focused on something else. Beyond the rubble of the buildings, several columns of black smoke rose high into the air. Fires could still be seen blazing aboard the USS Nimitz and the USS Carl Vinson. The smoke rose into the air, higher than the buildings the lay beyond, downtown San Diego, reminding Pierce at that moment, that war had come home.