3- Ghost of Anchorage

"Night vision mode on." It was 00:30 and our first mission was underway. The soft whirr of the helicopter faded off into the distance leaving just our squad in the clearing. It was a small space surrounded by tall trees and grass with a small stream running past. Only the silhouettes of objects were shown by the moonlight without night vision. I looked to West and whispered "Good luck." He shook his head and said "luck'll get us killed." I couldn't respond to that so we continued to trek along the Alaskan wilderness in silence. We traveled like that for about an hour until we reached a meadow with the rebel compound in the centre of it. The compound was made up of a few tents for vehicles, and several more for personnel. A hand full of armed guards paced the perimeter of a fence that encompassed every tent. I waited in the underbrush while the commander spoke into his comms. "Squad 51 in position for Operation Dagger. We will move in now and avoid engagement unless necessary." It was hard to see each other in our all black combat uniforms, so I jumped when I felt a tap on my back. "Don't get killed please. I'd like my only squadmate to stay intact." I snickered under my breath. "Let's dance"

Hand over mouth to silence, blade into throat, twist to make extra doubly sure. And just like that, one rebel guard was crumpled on the ground with blood leaking from his neck. Although I heard no sound, I knew that a short ways away, the commander had done the same to another guard. I fox walked over to where he told me to meet him, and sure enough, I found him at a loose section of the gate. "Terribly convenient don't you think?" He muttered. He made a sweeping motion for me to enter, so I dropped to my stomach and wriggled under the gate. As soon as my feet were through, West did the same. I searched the area around me and found the first vehicle tent right in front of us, concealing the gap in the fence. Inside said tent, we found an armoured car with an M249 hastily mounted to the top. "Damn, I don't have explosives. I have training paint grenades." Said the commander. Without wasting time, I set the C4 to the bottom of the car and connected it to the detonator which then displayed a green light. "There. Perfect."

I ducked out of the tent and lifted my rifle barrel as I quickly scanned my surroundings. No hostiles were in sight. As one entity, the commander and I noiselessly glided to the next tent and I set up another block of C4 on a similar car. The process was repeated at every tent until we had connected explosives to every vehicle and ammo cache in the base. "Why don't we just attach explosives to the human tents?" I asked in a barely audible breath. "We weren't told to" answered West. With our task completed, we silently retreated back to the woods and went prone in a bush. "This is 51-2 to Aegis squads 125, 167, and 218. Charges have been set and will be detonated on my mark. At that time, begin the attack." I said into my comms. "3, 2, 1, begin."

Clouds of fire burst into the air, painting the ground orange, and sending debris flying around the area. Shortly after, rebel squads scrambled out of their tents with rifles in hand. The commander unslung his M14 EBR and took aim at the escaping rebels. I followed suit and we both started firing into the frenzied targets. We watched as each enemy fighter burst into a pile of organs and red spray, only to immediately redirect our attention to new targets. We kept repeating our actions until finally the commander of squad 125 said "Thank you for the support, we will now extract supplies from the tents." It dawned on me that they were extracting supplies, and it made sense why we didn't target the other tents.

"Commander?" I asked. Arthur turned to me and raised his eyebrows as if to say "what is it?" I blushed slightly with embarrassment. "I'm glad you're okay. I don't know what I'd do without you. From my time active, you're all I've ever had." The commander turned to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Of course I wouldn't leave you. It'd feel like a stab to my heart if we were separated by squad assignment, or if, god forbid, one of us were killed." I reached to my shoulder with my right hand and clutched his arm. "Please don't get killed. I need you commander." He laughed a bit in reply. "I told you, I won't leave you. Not now, not ever."

-Arthur West-

As we relaxed with our operation completed I looked at Sass and gave her a thumbs up. "Good shooting earlier, Sass." I said. It was a drastic improvement over the range shooting with Squad 50. Her face lit up at the complement. "Thank you, commander." It was at that moment that the tent Squad 125 was in was sprayed by machine bullets. The sound of enemy shots pierced my ears and we began to search for the source of it. "Enemy gunfire from the south, seek cover and return fire." Cried out a doll from one of the Aegis squads. As the Aegis squads ran behind boxes and anything else they could fit behind, my squad sprinted to the right flank of the gunfire through the trees. An Aegis Mosin-Nagant returned fire, but was cut down by machine gun bullets, releasing a spray of mechanical parts and shredded synthetic skin.

"The trees! Get to them! We'll be able to hide better in them than here in the open." Shouted an Aegis commander. His SMG/AR dolls ran with him as another squad from behind lay down suppressing fire with an MG. As they made it to the final stack of boxes before "no-man's' land", they stopped and fired back towards the enemy squad in an effort to cover the remaining 2 squads' advance. Before making the final move to the forest, the third squad prepared to once again suppress the enemy fire. As the other squads rushed across the clearing, an IDW was ripped apart, and a STEN was wounded beyond repair. Once the final squad had made it to the trees, they all waited for us to create an opening to strike back.

I slid on my knee and went prone behind bushes on a hill overlooking a smaller hill a few hundred meters away. Through the trees I could see an enemy squad of dolls. I recognized the squad dolls as Sangvis Ferri models and my heart froze. "51-1 to Aegis squads, It's not a guerilla ambush. The enemy fire is from Sangvis Ferri tactical dolls. I repeat, Sangvis Ferri tactical dolls. I see one squad of 5 normal dolls, and 2 machine gunners. My squad will engage, but be wary of other squads." I raised my eye to the rifle scope and designated one of the MGs for Sass. On my signal, take out your designated MG. Ready?" "Yes." She said. I breath in and paused for a moment. "Shoot."

The heads of the two MGs burst open simultaneously, dropping both to the ground. The remainder of the Sangvis squad ducked behind rocks allowing the Aegis squads to advance and knock them out with incendiary grenades. Just as I was about to celebrate, a bullet struck my rifle handguard, shattering the fore end and rendering the rifle inoperable. "Shit, Jaegers." I hissed as I dropped the rifle and skittered backwards pulling Sass with me. We fell into a small dirt trench and laid ourselves flat against it, heart and core pounding. The Sangvis units were below the hill we were on, but we couldn't see their units. "Commander, the Jaeger units might be using digital camouflage. If we were to disable them, we could fight on even ground against them." Said Sass. I nodded in agreement. "You're right, but how?" We looked at one another and grinned. "Training grenades."

"Give me a general area" I whispered. Sass Peered over the trench and dropped back down after a few moments. "Behind the rocks to our right, in between our hill and the one opposite." She said quickly. I handed her a grenade and held one myself leaving one more for potential use. "Ready? Breath, focus, and… throw!" I cried out. We pulled ourselves over the trench edge and flung the grenades over to the rocks that the jaegers were shooting from. A blast of red paint covered the area, leaving 3 red humanoid figures standing. "This is Squad 51, enemy snipers have been marked. Return fire immediately." A hail of bullets from the Aegis MGs pelted the enemy squad sending chunks of rock, dirt, and tactical doll into the ground as bits of them shot up from their bodies.

We lay in the trench with adrenaline coursing through our veins from the action we just witnessed. "Should we link up with the Aegis squads?" Asked Sass. "Yes we should. Contact them and let's get moving." I said. Sass nodded and spoke into her comm link. "Squad 51-2 to Aegis forces. Requesting location for rendezvous." There was no reply. "Attention Aegis forces, please provide location for rendezvous." Again nothing. "Commander, there's nothing coming from the Aegis squads. I was puzzled. "They were in the woods to the north just a few moments ago." "Exactly, which is why this is-"

"Run…" said a voice into the comms. "Please run away…" It said again. This time barely more than a whisper. "That's odd." Muttered Sass. The world went silent for a moment as we sat in the trench alone. All signs of combat were gone, and the forest seemed devoid of life. "Yes indeed, run." Laughed a female voice. Instinctively, Sass threw herself onto me face down in a hug, and I felt a searing pain in my left shoulder no more than a second later. "You should have run earlier. It would've been more fun to chase you, you know? Said the female voice. I looked up and saw a dark shape looming over top of Sass and I. My night vision goggles were no longer functional, so I simply listened to the figure. "Anything to tell me before you die, honey?" Asked the voice. "No. Nothing to tell scum like you." I replied. "Oh? A feisty one? I like you quite a lot, but my dear old friend would've ripped you apart already. I miss that damn Reaper" The woman bent down and caressed my cheek. I flinched at the contact, and she laughed. "If you regain contact with them, tell your superiors this: We were defeated by the Ghost of Anchorage. I'll let you live if you do." I grinded my teeth in pain and frustration. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of my agreement, but there was no loss to it, and dying from pride was pointless. "Fine, I agree." I told the woman. "Excellent. See you around love. And with those final words, she was gone.

I could feel the biocomponents of a tactical doll leaking onto my shoulder, so I looked up to find Sass also stabbed through the shoulder. I couldn't tell for sure, but it felt like a thin metal rod had been forced through both of our bodies. Her head rested on top of mine, and she was sprawled out over me. "Sass, can you hear me?" I asked. I heard nothing until I strained me ears. "Yes." Is all she replied with. We lay there together in the trench, with the metal rod pinning both of us to the ground. "Commander, it hurts, so much." She said softly. I could hear her voice break. "Yes it does." I replied. The night grew darker as I lost blood. With my remaining energy, I reached up and grabbed the rod. I began to dislodge it painfully from myself in an effort to be free. I groaned with effort and could hear Sass's laboured breathing as the rod exited our bodies, leaking blood and oil alike.

Finally, the rod came loose and hit the ground to my right. Like a rag doll, Sass rolled off of me and landed with a soft cry of pain beside me facing upright. We lay there with our limbs tangled for a few brief moments as we greedily breathed in air and attempted to regain our focus. Together, we began to work on sealing and cleaning each other's wounds with bandages and other medical supplies we were provided with. After a few painful minutes of bandaging the wounds, and trying our damndest to suppress the bleeding, we finally began to slow our blood loss and stitch the wounds with our emergency supplies. Soon, we were safe from the immediate danger of bleeding out, but we still were alone in the Alaskan wilderness with no support and no way to contact Aegis or SC.

"We have emergency rations to last us a few days. Maybe a week or two if we're extra careful." I said. "Technically, since you're larger and are human, you'll require more food. We can share a ration pack each day, and I'll have about a third of it." Sass replied. "I'm not having any of that and you know it." I retorted. I turned my head to face her. "You're all I have. Telling me to have more rations than you is asking too much from me." Sass sighed and met my gaze. "Fine." She said in return. After resting on the ground for a few moments, I sat up. "Do we have anything to sleep with?" I asked. Sass nodded and dragged a spam can out from her bag. It was labeled with "SLEEPING BAG, MOUNTAIN, M1949". "I kept it with me in case we needed it. I guess it was a good move, right?" Said Sass with a small laugh. The sleeping bag was meant for 1 user, but it was able to fit the two of us after we stripped off everything but our pants and shirt. "It's like when we slept together at Pacific Base, except we're in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, alone." I told Sass. In the dark, she gave a weak smile. "You're all I have. But that's okay, because you're all I need." I looked up at the stars and felt warmth spread through me. "You're all I want." I answered. Together in the confines of the sleeping bag, we took our breaths as one, as I felt Sass's chest rise and fall at the same time as my own. The stars watched us that night as we slept under the black sky, looking to an uncertain future, and the promise of our companionship.