Author's note: Vietnam happens. Just look at the title.

Chapter 8: liberation of hue city

Marcus looked into the tank's telescopic sights, and looked at the nearing city, and he gulped, he had only a basic idea on this tank's abilities, and had no idea on defenses of the city, but because they were almost there, it didn't matter now. Marcus turned to the captain and said "hey, Sheppard…if they got defenses, how are we gonna get past them?" Sheppard pointed up and smiled.

Marcus didn't understand, and went back to the gunner seat. A few seconds later, he heard F-4 radio chatter "granddaddy ballsack, this is big papa penis, white death inbound, over" Marcus then saw the bunkers defending the town explode in white flames as the napalm hit its mark. Sheppard got on the radio and yelled "OK! CITY IS OPEN, CHARGE THEM DOWN!"

As the rushed down the road to hue city, they (at first) met little resistance, but about 5 minutes after the bombing, the met FUCKLOADS of t-54's. Sheppard turned to Marcus and said "arm the AT rounds, it's open season!"as the tanks charged into the town, they eliminated all who stood in their way, ridinoff was told to operate the gun of a huey, so he covered them from above.

Marcus had destroyed several tanks, but before he knew it, hailstorms of RPG-7 AT's flew into the side of his tank. "BAIL OUT!" Sheppard screamed as the fire began to rise inside the tank's hull. Marcus felt something hit him in his head, and he felt the flames surround him, it looked like the end.

(some time later)

-ok, come on, wake up…

Marcus stirred, and before he knew it, he felt something good inside his veins. He opened his eyes, only to see a sergeant dressed in a mud and bloodstained uniform, who promptly said "hey, were you in the tank that the captain was driving?" Marcus nodded, but before he could say anything, the soldier said "well, he and the crew were killed, and you must have some idea about our plan to retake the city?"

Marcus stared blankly back at him. The soldier then said "oh, wait….sgt john marsh, reporting for duty!" Marcus stood up, and picked up a M-16 off the ground and said "did you see any gunships get hit?" the sgt Shook his head and said "nope, they all went back to base, they went dry on fuel and ammo."

Marcus wondered where ridinoff was at that time.

(meanwhile, at ridinoff's location) ridinoff got in a jeep and said to the pilots "thank you, I haven't blown shit up like that since the taking of barklin!" the pilots laughed as he drove off. Ridinoff had bad news, Marcus was killed in his tank, and he had his duty to report that the team went KIA, and now a Pegasus strike team would have to attack from the air.

(Back to Marcus)

He looked at the map and frowned…almost 90% of their armor was lost, they had no air support, and they didn't have a radio for artillery. It was, as the troops often said, FUBAR. Marcus turned to the men and said "we…are in deep shit, with no paddle…but, we are troopers, and we are god on the ground…we don't need tanks, we got the rockets, air can't hurt us, and infantry…the NVA are a bunch of pussies! We can take em' and hue city will be ours in 12 hours! The troopers screamed "hooah!" as Marcus loaded his rifle and said "let's get this done."

(elsewhere) Rictofen saw the fire and explosions before he even saw the city, and he knew whoever was attacking would most likely fail at their current rate. However, if he could, perhaps…turn the tables, that would slow the NVA down, and let him get to the giant faster. He spun up his guns as they flew into the combat zone.

(back to Marcus) as the fighting progressed, Marcus saw the men fight like the devil, he was impressed with them, and he knew what they were feeling. As he walked into a building, he heard sgt. Marsh scream "LOOK OUT!" and felt him tackle him as a gun went off. He got up to see a NVA lying on the ground, with his pistol out. Marcus fired a burst of M-16 into him, and turned to marsh, who was holding his arm in agony.

"fuck…he got me…but, at least you are still alive…." Marsh uttered as a medic picked him up. Marcus ran to him and said "why did you do that?" marsh smiled and muttered "hey, I never would let a man get hurt, gotta keep em' safe…hell, I would take that bullet for you, the cap'n, private Nile…yeah…Nile, he's just like my brother..Huh..yeah id' go nuts if he died…." He went limp as the medic injected him with morphine, as he fell into a sleep, relived of his pain.

Marcus tipped his cap to the trooper, he was one of the bravest men he ever met, and he sincerely hoped he would recover, he was like…like the soldier that Mendez was, when they first met. Marcus now had a reason to fight, to make these bastards pay, from john's wound, to the thousands KIA, all the NVA would pay, person by person, blood drop by blood drop.

(hours later)

Marcus was pleased as they cleared out the last building, and prepping up to do the final push to the NVA depot, it was gonna be tough, but if they did it right…they would have hue city, and he could get deeper into the everfree, as well as maybe find Mendez and dash…

As the men prepped for the final push, a radio-op ran into the room and said "SIR! WE GOT A HIND GUNSHIP INBOUND!" Marcus looked out to see an ugly helicopter flying toward them, and he pulled out a LAW and started aiming at it. But, to his surprise the helicopter flew to the enemy base, and started hovering around it. Before he could contemplate what it was doing, it opened fire on the NVA base, and utterly destroyed it, as it's rockets hit some fuel tanks and HE ammo the NVA stored.

Marcus heard a trooper scream "WE TOOK HUE CITY! MARCUS DID IT!" Marcus didn't remember the night after that moment, he was too busy thinking of his men who had died, and knowing that he had just saved these men.

Author's note: oh, if you are wondering, sgt John marsh is a reference to a story called "out of the jungle" parts of my reference kinda explain some of the stuff that happens to him (I:E how he got a bullet in the arm) it was written by a great guy named mamoo…you should totally read that story, I liked it. It's on my favorite story list.

well, Vietnam is out of the way, now Marcus goes deeper into the everfree…let's just say "Jurassic park" meets "half-life 2" give me a few days to prep up things.

R&R!