Author's Note: Thanks so much for all the wonderful reviews, guys! It was very awesome to see my inbox get bombarded last week, lol, especially since I've been under the weather this week. I appreciate all your comments, and I'm really glad you're enjoying the story so much. It makes this endeavor worthwhile and gives me lots of drive to keep on truckin'. :D

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Marching On, Part One

I woke up to my husband trailing his fingers softly down my bare back, enjoying the sensation when he leaned down to press his lips between my shoulders. For a moment I smiled in contentment, even in my sleepy state, before remembering what lay ahead of us. I shifted slightly in the bunk and mumbled, "Is it that time already?"

Willis responded with another gentle kiss that made me shiver, this time centered on my spine. "Yeah. Sorry, Coop. I know you didn't get much rest."

I cracked an eye open and turned my head in his direction. "That might have something to do with how irresistible you are. It's your fault."

He chuckled and leaned in closer, hugging my back to his naked chest. "I could say the same thing about you."

I turned over completely this time so I was facing him fully, and kissed him hard on the lips. Leaving again so soon after just getting back was going to be tougher than I thought.

Willis followed with a deep kiss that I badly wanted to return, but instead I forced myself to pull back. I had very little time now before the operation planetside was to start, and I still had some things to get done before then. Things that did not involve lounging in bed with my husband, no matter how much I would've liked the luxury. We'd been lucky we'd had as much time to ourselves as we'd already gotten.

"I need to get going," I said to him.

"I know," he replied.

Reluctantly I separated myself from his embrace and stood, looking around his cramped quarters for my clothes so I could throw them on on my way to the shower. I dressed in my undergarments and PT shorts, then decided to pull on Willis's discarded T-shirt for now. He frowned at me as he sat up in the bed, but it was feigned.

"What am I supposed to wear?"

"I'll be right back. Your squadron was placed on standby, so you're not in as much of a hurry."

"Uh-huh."

"Five minutes. Promise."

I did just that, getting back into my own shirt and fatigues when I returned. Willis was still lying in the bunk and I envied him a little for it, but I knew he'd been fighting almost the entire time my Marines and I had been en route from Requiem. He deserved a good rest - and now that I was leaving for Earth's surface, he'd be able to get it.

"I'm going to head to the mess and grab a quick bite before take-off," I told him as I sat on the chair beside his desk to lace up my combat boots. "Do you want to come with?"

He shook his head. "No. I need to shower myself first and that'll probably eat up too much of your time. I know you're pressed for it."

A lump formed in my throat, but I understood. I nodded and got to my feet. "This is it, then. Hopefully I'll see you planetside soon. That'll mean the SpecOps mission aboard that Promethean ship worked out."

"Yeah. I hope it all goes well, too."

I went over to the side of the bed and kissed him, touching my hand to his cheek. He kissed me back.

"I love you, Cooper. Stay safe."

"I love you, too. Try not to fall out of the sky again, please."

He smiled faintly and released me. "I'll let you know when we're in atmosphere."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

I quickly picked up my gear and left the room. Once outside, I had to swallow hard to keep the hurt from engulfing me.

Always coming back together just to be split apart again, I thought. Story of our damn lives.

"Lieutenant Colonel Cooper. Welcome. I hear you're my new XO."

As soon as Brewer, Lloyd, and I had touched down near Charleston, South Carolina - along with a squadron of Pelicans bringing in the remainder of the 52nd Combat Regiment groundside - I quickly got off the transport and hoofed it over to the command tent. There, I met up with the famous brigadier general himself - the man I'd met briefly five years ago, before our final assault in Kenya.

I took his hand and shook it. "Yes, sir. That's what General Eckhart told me on the LP."

"I trust he also gave you a preliminary assessment of the area? Things've gotten pretty hot down here."

"My husband let me know, actually. He's a pilot with the 87th Air Wing."

"Oh. Well, godspeed to them, too."

"Thank you, sir."

He momentarily frowned. "Is the 87th planetside? I haven't seen them mentioned in the roster reports."

"No, sir. Not yet. They're up above near Luna right now, keeping an eye on that Promethean ship that just arrived. They'll be making sure it doesn't cause us any trouble down here."

"Right. I'm sure the two of you will be wanting to catch up again sooner rather than later, so let's try to get this done quickly."

"That's the plan, sir."

General Bolowsky gestured for me to step forward then and I did, following him a bit further into the tent where a holotable was set up. He pressed a few buttons on the side and a visual map of the southeastern United States popped up. "Your flyboy tell you the Prometheans have covered a lot of ground here recently? That most of the largest cities in the eastern part of the state are under their control?"

"Yes, sir. General Eckhart said they're as far south as Savannah, Georgia now."

"That's right. As you probably know, Colonel, our job is going to be to take these population centers back."

"Sir? My orders were to try to eliminate the portal here in Charleston first."

Bolowsky smiled patiently. "I'm aware. You're correct that that's your most immediate concern. But I was talking about the bigger picture, Cooper. As my XO, you're not just going to be responsible for your own regiment. You're going to affect the execution and the outcome of this entire campaign."

I didn't allow myself too much time to let that sink in, for fear of looking dumbstruck in front of the general. So instead I replied simply, "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now - "

"Sorry, sir, but just one question," I interjected then. "Weren't there any full birds available to take my position? I mean, I just got back from deployment this afternoon, sir, and I'm not sure if you've heard, but I made a pretty big fuck up out of it." I took a deep breath. "I'm the reason the Prometheans are here in the first place, General."

Bolowsky nodded. "I know."

"Then why - "

"You were a student at the Pensacola War College before you left for Requiem, weren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you already have a leg up on the next candidates for this position. My XO was Colonel Mike Fabri, and he was killed in action two days into the assault." The general gave me a look. "I don't know about you, but I'll take a live LTC over a dead O-6 any day. And the two others at your rank...well, let's just say I read through your CSV, and they don't come close. Satisfied?"

Somehow I felt like I was being made to feel silly - and the general more than accomplished that. "Yes, sir," I repeated.

"Excellent. Now, back to what I was saying earlier. Take a look at these unit postings, Cooper, and tell me what you see."

I folded my arms across my chest and studied the holographic map. For the longest time I wasn't sure what it was he wanted me to notice, until a pattern appeared in my head.

"The Prometheans are all in the city, while the Storm troops that made it in atmosphere are clustered around the outskirts."

"Exactly. Now why do you suppose that would be?"

"I don't know, sir. Keeping us contained?"

"Perhaps. What I figure though is that it's the AI-bots who want to wreak havoc on the population and cause the largest disruptions, partially because of the size of their force. The Storm that came in were a smaller contingent, so it would make sense for them to take on less dense locations, yeah?"

"Yes, sir. So...what are we going to do about that?"

The general smiled faintly again. "You tell me. Let's hear your plan, Colonel."

"Sir, this is a little outside my purview..."

"Go ahead. I promise to amend it if it's not up to snuff, but I think you could bring in some fresh perspective. I'm all ears."

Frowning, I shifted a bit and scrutinized the map again, trying to come up with a good defensive option for our forces. Or maybe that was it: not going on defense, like most would do, but attempting to gain the upper hand and go on offense instead.

"Okay," I said. "Looking at the way the enemy units are scattered like that...it might be a good idea to eliminate the threats from outside the city before going in. If we can clear the outskirts, we'll have more room to maneuver and more manpower when we go into the cities, since our forces won't be locked up fighting in two different locations. Sir."

General Bolowsky nodded. "All right. And how about a timetable? We don't want to keep the cities under Promethean control for long, so this'll have to be wrapped up fast around the perimeter if we're to secure the urban areas in time. What's your contingency for that?"

Somehow it all seemed to come to me clearly. "Bombing runs, sir. We soften up the targets on the outskirts, mop 'em up quick with our assault force, and head right into the city."

This time, Bolowsky grinned. "Very good, Colonel. Now, are you ready to go out and try it?"

The stakes were high, and I knew this was no war game or made-up scenario like I'd had at the War College. We were dealing with a real invasion here, with real cities and real people's lives - both civilian and military - who would face the consequences if I was wrong. But in the moment I felt nothing if not determined to beat each and every last one of the bots and aliens off our home turf. I nodded.

"Yes, sir. Just give me the word and the 52nd will be on the move."

General Bolowsky was the one who did most of the prep work for my idea. He was the one who relayed my plan - now my orders - to the rest of the command group, let any units currently involved know to stay out of the area, and got the air wing on standby ready. For my part, I issued orders to the mortar teams that were to supply us with additional firepower in getting the outskirts cleared, and gave explicit orders to my own regiment to just sit tight and stay put for now. From this moment forward, it was going to be the flyboys' and mortarmen's show for a while.

"Hold tight, Marines," I said over the general COM freq. "Orders to follow."

I glanced over at Bolowsky once everything was in place, which had taken the better part of an hour in order to get that many units arranged on such short notice. We were digging in deep for this one, and I wanted to make sure it was all done right. I simply could not take another failure on my part.

The brigadier general gave me a slight nod of his head from across the holotable. "Whenever you're ready, Colonel."

In the moment I thought of my two boys and little girl down at the airbase in Florida - just a hop, skip, and a jump from where the Prometheans were now - and of my husband up above in space. I took in a deep breath to steady my nerves, then keyed the COM again.

"This is Ground Command to Air Team - you're free to begin your runs. Lay 'em down hot, Marines!"

It was eerily quiet for the briefest of seconds after I gave the command. We knew we didn't have to wait long for the F-41s to show up on our position, and we didn't. Soon, the command tent shook and the ground quaked slightly, before we finally heard the sound of tens of Broadswords on approach.

Bolowsky tipped his chin to me. "Cooper, I'd like you and your security to head out and get a live-feed going for us in here. Let's see what the bombers drop."

"Yes, sir," I answered immediately. I was grateful for something to do other than just stand there and sweat bullets.

Outside the tent I regrouped with Staff Sergeant Lynch and his squad, as well as Major Brewer and Lieutenant Lloyd. Once again, Ethan was mysteriously absent, as he'd been up on the listening post, but I knew for a fact he'd made it planetside so he couldn't have been far. I mentally pushed the thought away though, realizing he wasn't my concern for the moment, and settled for taking a perch behind a low brick wall to watch.

What I wanted most right now - besides getting in on the action myself - was to hold onto my rifle, but it wouldn't do me much good this far out anyway. Instead, I kept my weapon strapped to my back and tapped the side of my helmet, and my cam feed started to record our Broadswords swooping in to devastate.

"This is different than Kenya, huh?" Brewer asked beside me, also fixing her gaze above us. "There, this whole part was already done for us. We got in only after they'd wrecked the place. Now, we get a front-row seat."

"You were in Africa in '53 for the last push?"

My XO smiled proudly. "Yes, ma'am. Won't ever forget it."

I nodded. "Me, either. I hope they give 'em hell."

The first of the bombs were dropped and began detonating just outside Charleston. Up above, all we heard was a constant repeat of sonic booms, as wave after wave of F-41s rushed in to join in the attack. The hulking payloads they let loose tore into buildings, fields, businesses, and homes with earnest, an equal-opportunity demolition crew. It was both awe-inspiring and terrifying to watch, and I smirked at the thought of how many Storm were getting blown to bits down there. But as I sat there crouched safely behind the low brick wall, miles away, I also wondered how frightened the people left in the city were feeling right now.

Or maybe they were feeling relieved. I hoped they did.

Relieved because the Marines are coming, I thought. And we're coming to take your city back.