DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: "Has he lost his mind? - Can he write or is he blind? - Is it conceit or is it gall; That Marvel and Paramount owns it all? - Or if he's sued that will he fall? - Is he alive or is he dead? - Has he trademarked thoughts in his head? - We'll just leave this here: No money was made; So he's in the clear!"

PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge." – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – German philosopher and cultural critic – 1844-1900

LAST UPDATED ON: 03-24-2020

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CHAPTER EIGHT – PAY-BACK

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INBOUND TO GULMIRA, PAKTIKA PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN, OCTOBER 16th, 2010 – MORNING

Riri alternated between checking her speed and the timer her HUD displayed on the inside of her helmet. She was thankful that while JARVIS might not be as creative as STARC, his methodological outlook and memories where of being a butler from the real Edwin Jarvis. This gave him a take on technology that was far more geared to personal comfort.

Certainly STARC had helped with the lion's share of the things that would hopefully make this mission successful. But it was JARVIS who had ensured that the Ironheart's suit had a fully functional waste capture and removal system as well as noise dampening system. This same system was keeping the roar of the Party Bus, the vehicle she and STARC were being carried like missiles by, to an acceptable hum and vibration. Given they were hurtling down from low orbit, it was amazing how little she felt it.

Her original plan was to deploy from Dubai. Not only did Stark Industries have a solid presence there, but STARC pointed out how Tony was known to throw wild parties from there. It would make a good cover. However, even with the stealth features in the scramjet which would save them time and energy getting to the target, Riri felt it was too long of a distance. That and the best path either sent them too close to U.S. Navy assets guarding the Strait of Hormuz or over Iranian space. Sparking an international incident was almost last on her things she wanted to come out of this mission.

It was Jennifer Walters who came up with the solution. Riri knew that if their roles had been reversed and it had been she who died in Afghanistan, Tony would most certainly have tried to keep the Iron Man project from Pepper. Riri felt Pepper had enough stress dealing with Obadiah and the loss of Tony to keep this from her, especially given STARC's saving her and Julietta back in September had already let the cat out of the bag.

So during a planning session where worries about the military response abounded, Jennifer pointed out that while the U.S. and other allied units in Afghanistan effectively controlled the air space, they did so in support of the Afghanistan government. Jennifer already had a lot of dealings with General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross to know that in many cases the U.S. military conveniently forgot about civilian rules when it suited them. So while sneaking in was still part of the plan, why not ask permission from the Afghan government?

Thus instead of a party in Dubai as STARC had originally suggested and amended to a charity ball by JARVIS, Riri figured she could kill multiple birds with one stone. So while the glitzy roll-out for the new "Iron Legion" concept would be presented at the 2011 Stark Expo, Riri felt a more practical demonstration to the Afghan government was in order. Even so, Riri had kept STARC away. Her Iron Man bodyguard could be presented after this mission was finished.

First, Riri felt that guilt over what had happened to her and Stark would make her request easier along with the carrot of the Iron Legion. Secondly, if there was a place that needed her tech, it was Afghanistan suffering from over 30 years of civil war. Plus, while a war zone might seem an odd place to do testing, one couldn't ask for a better place to fully explore the suits capabilities in real world conditions. Also, the lack of appropriate infrastructure meant that the Afghan government would be totally reliant on Stark Industries and thus wouldn't try to take over the program.

Of course Riri had plotted with Pepper to ensure as many women would be involved on the program as possible. She wanted to continue a little pet project she'd been doing back before the attack. She wanted the Afghans, especially the little girls, to see women doing the same jobs as men. While the base in Mazar-E-Sharif where they would be operating was further away from the tribes who practiced that sort of misogyny, most of the actual places the Iron Legion would be used were.

So far things had been going according to plan. They flew in everything; traveled to Kabul to meet with president, Hamid Karzai in secret, got the needed permissions, had done a preliminary meet-and-greet with various government officials and then travel back to the Stark Industries compound. After suiting up, they had launched attached to the scramjet.

While the Stark Industries had been working on their own version of the NASA's X-43, the Party Bus had been built with a different mission in mind than simply pushing the limits of hypersonic flight. Indeed, most missions would safely be in the supersonic range of Mach 1 through 3. Yet it was the added repulsor technology which would enable it to be more capable in normal flight as well as allowing it to change direction easier.

This was the key. At the normal, best cruising speed of Mach 3 for such vehicles, they could easily get from Mazar-E-Shariff to Gulmira in about 40 minutes. The problem was such supersonic speeds weren't stealthy especially in an active war zone with plenty of radars and other sensors. Thus the plan was instead of going to the target directly, the Party Bus would launch on a ballistic track slowly to allow the stealth features to hopefully mask their flight.

Once in low orbit, the Party Bus would be rotated back down and then its speed would be used to quickly get them to the target. They'd be detected, but none of the players involved would be able to respond fast enough. If things went well, they'd be able to link back up to the Party Bus and, if needed, they could go to hypersonic to get out of the area. If not, Riri was confident that she and STARC could lay low and get to pre-designated safe zones for extraction.

Riri ran another diagnostic on her suit and the various weapon pods which were attached.

"You're losing nerd cred, your Fabness," STARC's voice said over their dedicated link.

"How so?" Riri asked.

"You're supposed to show how unflappable you are by being asleep like Hicks in Aliens rather than nervously checking the suit again! I can't believe I have to remind you of this." STARC quipped. Riri was impressed she could almost see Tony's face with the smirk he would have had when he made jokes like that in STARC's voice. Riri's heart also clenched as well. The closer they got to their target gave rise to a lot of memories she'd rather not deal with.

"Sorry STARC, but you require adult supervision at all times," Riri snarked back. Never mind this entire trip was taking less than 20 minutes.

"I resemble that remark!" STARC said even as JARVIS' soft voice said in her helmet, "He does resemble that remark."

A warning popped up on her HUD. "Okay boys; it's show-time. JARVIS, prepare for separation." Riri said as she cleared her screens of all non-essentials and activated her visor ports. She'd kept them dark since while the scenery had been beautiful, it had been distracting at the speed they were moving.

Now came the big test. While they had spent over two weeks working at a remote Stark Industries testing range in Montana to practice with the suits and make upgrades and corrections as needed, this was the first time they had been able to test the insertion procedure. It was ironic that Tony had referenced Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers mobile infantry in his last video given that both suits were outfitted with specialized pods designed to mimic how the powered suits in that book slowed down when inserting from orbit.

"Separation coming up in one minute. Bay doors opening in 3, 2, 1, Opening," JARVIS counted down.

Riri couldn't help but blink and she could have sworn she felt wind on her face as there was a roar buffeting as the Party Bus bottom retracted with a snap. It had to given the speed they were moving at meant they had to retract as quickly and in uniformly as possible to keep from being ripped away. Riri's stomach felt like it was being pushed into her lungs as she could feel the new drag on the Party Bus noticeably slow it. There was a flash of panic as the Bus wobbled a bit but with a hum of repulsors, the vehicle snapped back into its controlled dive towards Gulmira.

Riri saw her status boards were all green. Her suit jets were ready and her ARC reactor was at full, "Ironheart is a go!"

STARC echoed her, "Iron Man is a go!"

To an outsider it might seem odd that they were verbalizing everything when JARVIS and STARC were linked into the suits and the Party Bus itself in a way. However, during their testing stage, they had found that by using verbal procedures going back to the Space Program helped. For one, it was good protocol when taping their tests in case, at some later date, others would review it. Secondly, the issue of JARVIS and STARC being digital beings showed up again. Both AI's felt the verbalization helped sync them better to the moment.

"Sensor drones firing in 3, 2, 1; launching," JARVIS said. Three missiles that had been linked up on either side and between Riri and STARC detached and then ignited and roared off to their various targets. The plan called to hit Gulmira, then the city of Shkin which was a hot-spot of terrorist activity. Depending on the response from military units in the area, the third target, a suspected supply base, was to be hit. The missiles would deploy surveillance drones to help them have eyes on for the attack. The Gulmira drone would be sending in data before Riri and STARC were half-way to the target.

Which was rapidly coming up. Now the hard part was to bleed off the speed they'd use coming down from orbit. It was probably Riri's imagination but JARVIS' voice sounded tense as he counted down, "Suit Separations in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; SEPARATE!"

The clamp holding her in place pushed her away from the Party Bus along with STARC. Unlike the missiles, both suits were facing with their feet towards the ground. After the Party Bus accelerated away from them, the first chutes activated with a yank.

Riri gritted her teeth in pain. This was the dicey part. The g-force was something her adult body could take but there was still worry about her baby. However, she was still very early into it and the models said it was an acceptable risk. Acceptable or not, the chute gave a huge jerk against her before it ripped away as planned.

Both suits had their feet and hand repulsors on to slow themselves down. This is where having JARVIS connected to her suit was vital. At the speed they were descending, a miscalculation could send the suit into a death-spiral. Both STARC and JARVIS were making micro-corrections at speeds no humans could match.

The second chute activated with another jarring yank. This chute lasted much longer and Riri was pleased to see their rate of descent was within the mission parameters. The final chute got them to about five miles above the target before they jettisoned it.

Riri took control of her suit and did the flip that they had practiced heavily in Montana which brought her pointed towards the ground. "Ironheart is in powered flight. Receiving target data," Riri said in a voice that betrayed the fact she'd probably be killing a lot of people in moments."

"Iron Man is in powered flight; heavy weapons detected. Moving to engage," STARC said almost as dispassionately, but Riri could hear a bit of the anger that STARC had said burned within him. With his processing power, Iron Man was the obvious first strike as he'd be able to process the drone's feed in seconds.

Riri's feed showed civilian women and children being herded into trucks with a line of men on their knees with their hands behind their heads. It didn't take a genius polymath to figure out what the armed Ten-Rings men behind them would probably do once the trucks rolled out. Riri decided that she needed to engage quickly instead of the planned fly-over attack. She flipped herself back so her feet pointed towards the ground and went to full burn. "JARVIS, hit those machine gun nests!"

In the last seconds before she landed, a flock of micro-missiles shot up from shoulder launchers which then retracted back into the main pod on her back. Even with sensors, having things blocking one's vision if she turned her head wasn't a good idea.

With a massive crash, she landed in the quad just as the missiles were striking the Ten-Ring soldiers on the roofs behind heavy machine guns as well as two Technical vehicles. It wasn't a rousing movie score, but as Riri stood, the explosion from the Toyota truck going up behind her was fanfare enough.

Immediately (and without any regard for friendly fire) the Ten-Rings thugs began to fire at her. The difference between the suit she and Tony made back in the cave and her Ironheart suit couldn't be more (dare she think it?) stark. She didn't even feel the 7.62mm bullets as they pinged off her. However, she didn't want any of the civilians to be hit by ricochets so she began to shoot at the various fighters with her repulsors. She'd break out her other weapons only as needed. She had plenty of targets she'd have to take out in Shkin.

Riri had taken down four fighters before shouts from the Ten-Rings and screams of fear from the civilians grabbed her attention. She turned with repulsors ready, to find a line of women and children with guns to their heads by cowardly Ten-Rings men. She didn't need JARVIS to translate what they were saying. It was obvious so she let her repulsors cycle down and lowered her arms...

...and then promptly shot all the thugs with precise head-shots from one of her bullet-burst pods. Once again, having an AI capable of insanely quick calculations was handy in a combat zone! Riri didn't stand and gloat as the circling drone had caught an image that caused her to leap over the truck and then over the walls of a nearby qalat. Thermal imagery showed her old jailer Abu Bakar frantically trying to connect on a satellite phone. Seeing him remind her of Tony's death so she felt a movie homage was in order. STARC wasn't the only one who could do a Robocop bit!

Bakar screamed like a baby goat as she punched through the walls as if they were plaster and pulled him through the hole. Bakar's screams turned to ones of pain and Riri let him writhe on the ground for a bit before flipping up her face-plate.

"Surprise! Surprise, goat-fucker! The Karma Army is here and she's going to roll right over your evil ass!" Riri snarled out with a feral grin. She was glad that even with her visor up, Bakar's expression as he realized who was under the armor was being recorded.

She shut her visor and grabbed Bakar with no regard if she was crushing his arm or not, "Time to face your adoring public, asshole!" Riri leapt over the wall again and then back to the quad. Back in Montana, both she and STARC had found that sometimes it was quicker to use the strength of the armor and micro-bursts from the jet-boot repulsors to leap around rather than fly. Again, in an ironic twist, this was again another similarity to the Starship Troopers mobile infantry suits.

Riri landed and threw Bakar in front of the men and women who had been embracing each other and their children in relief. Riri was sure none of them had any illusions as to what was to be their fates under the Ten-Rings. While shocked, Riri was happy to see they didn't seem frightened of her.

"JARVIS, give me some Pashtu," Riri said. She pointed to Bakar who was once again writing in pain on the ground, "My gift to you. In payment for the help given by a son of Gulmira, Dr. Fazli. I know this man's life does little to make up what our weapons have done. Still, he's all yours!"

The faces of the people lit up as they not only understood her words but realized who the man on the ground was. They moved towards the man with a glee that creeped Riri out before she took off to join STARC who was busy destroying Ten-Ring vehicles on the outskirt of town.

XxXxX

TACTICAL CONTROL ROOM, EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 15th, 2010 – EVENING

COL Rhodes hustled into the TacCon room with the air of an irritated man called in from a date going well. Airmen Connelly could tell from the Colonel's face that this was probably true given it was Friday night. He quickly averted his eyes as the Rhodes stormed over to his workstation.

"What have we got?" Rhodes barked out. His first decent date after getting back on track after the Afghanistan fiasco and this had to happen!

The shift duty officer, Major Thomas threw up his hands, "A whole lot of confusion, Colonel. It's why we called you in. It started a little over an hour ago. We got a weird hit in northern Afghanistan. Wasn't sure what it was at first but then we finally got a good lock in low orbit. About the size of a fighter."

Rhodes eyebrows jumped almost to his forehead, "A fighter? In space?"

MAJ Thomas nodded, 'Yeah, crazy right? Anyway, whatever it is, it almost immediately begins a supersonic speed dive toward the Afghan/Pakistan border. About 10 miles up, it deploys three missiles and then two more missiles and then levels off and accelerates toward the Afghan/Iran border. Before it got there, it slowed down and then we up and lost contact with it."

"What do you mean? Did it fly under our radars?" Rhodes ask as he looked at the real-time feed of the event that Airmen Connelly had brought up for him.

"No I mean it disappeared. Like Star Trek cloaking device type disappeared. So I'm thinking this is some SHIELD op, but they deny it," MAJ Thomas said with a shake of his head and a look of disgust. Rhodes knew why; SHIELD would deny they had a boot up your ass even as it was tickling your prostate.

"And the missiles? Where did they strike?" Rhodes asked after he rewound the live feed of them losing contact with the UFO three times.

MAJ Thomas shook his head again, "We don't know. We're not sure exactly what they did. The first three went to Gulmira, Shkin and an area near the Pakistani border we've been getting intel that the Ten-Rings might have a supply base there. The thing is, we haven't gotten any indication of a detonation or any sort of things like an EMP pulse or NBC strike. The other two missiles landed in Gulmira. There we got explosions, but they were on-going. About 20 minutes ago, we got two small contacts leaving Gulmira. They landed in Shkin about 10 minutes ago and now we're getting reports of explosions. Luckily, we had a satellite over that area and thermal imagery shows fires in numerous places around the city. Task Force 76 has some gunships in the air and we have some F-22's in route. But still, we're about 10 minutes out."

COL Rhodes felt a cold pit forming in his stomach. SHIELD wasn't the only ones who had stealth tech. In fact, a lot of it was built off of work done initially by Stark Industries. Rhodes also knew that one of the men who was present with Tony before his death was from Gulmira. And who just happened to be in Afghanistan right now but Riri Williams?

Questions still swirled around the Pentagon, the media and the internet about what had gone on back in Afghanistan. SHIELD knew something but they weren't telling and neither had there been anything but a bland statement from Stark Industries. Rhodes hadn't the time nor the inclination to jump back into his role as liaison with Stark Industries so he was out of the loop. However, he knew that Tony's fabrication lab had been working hard and Riri Williams had disappeared for over two weeks to a remote site according to a dispatch from Pepper.

Rhodes looked at the information on the Digital Battle Captain screens that where mirroring information from Bagram, Kandahar as well as CENTCOM. As Edwards was a training and development focused base, they were wired into both Iraq and Afghanistan. It made sense that the in-theater types and CENTCOM called for outside help on trying to figure out what was going on.

But what was going on? The UFO could easily be an unmanned vehicle. Rhodes knew what few did about how repulsor technology made getting into space easy if you had the power. Right there was the wrench in the plans of so many companies and militaries around the world. Power. Everyone had plenty of great designs for weapon systems but so far, they all lacked a portable power supply powerful enough to run them. If replicating the Super-Serum was the Holy Grail in bio-weaponry, replicating something like the power system the Red Skull had used in WW II was the same for traditional weaponry.

The best avenue towards fixing that problem, however, had been shelved after the incident with the Hulk. Even if the Banner Incident had been using gamma radiation to replace the Vita-Rays used in conjunction with the Super-Soldier Serum, no one wanted to risk another Hulk. That and nobody wanted to have a battlefield filled with gamma radiation as gamma-powered vehicles and weapons were destroyed.

So where did a vehicle that small get the power? The Jericho missiles used repulsor technology but they were, by definition, one-shot weapons. The two unknowns in Gulmira not only seemed to be autonomous, but capable of moving to multiple targets. We're they some form of super-drone? Had the previous missiles deployed control drones to allow a link-up with Stark operators? It seemed the best answer even if the question of power was still unanswered.

The only truly unique power option Stark Industries had was the ARC Reactor. While powerful and clean, it's size precluded it from being used for anything smaller than a naval ship. In fact, Rhodes was one of the few to be in the loop to know that only the prototype SHIELD helicarrier had one.

Rhodes turned to MAJ Thomas, "I'm not sure what is going on, but I've got a strong hunch that Stark Industries is somehow involved. I'm going to call them now. Let me know when we get eyes on whatever is in Shkin."

MAJ Thomas nodded curtly, "Will do, colonel!"

Rhodes looked at his phone. Would Pepper answer? Or should he call Obadiah? Rhodes made a face when he realized that he had no idea if he called Tony's old number if Riri would answer. He finally called up Pepper. He was startled when a different voice answered.

"Pepper's line. What can I do for you, Colonel Rhodes?"

Rhodes blinked. It was Jennifer Walters' voice. He'd worked with her enough to know. Often in bailing Tony out of some scandal or another, "Uh, yeah...Jen. I really need to speak to Pepper or Riri if she's available. We've got a situation in Afghanistan and I think Stark Industry technology may be involved."

A chuckle was her first reply, "Oh I can assure you Stark tech is certainly involved, Colonel. There is nothing for you or the Air Force to worry about. This is an internal Stark Industries matter of policing up weapons and other material stolen from us," the lawyer said in a tone that made Rhodes think she was smiling.

Rhodes wasn't smiling, "What? You can't send civilians into our battle space, Jen! I don't care who made the decision, but I'm telling you to shut it down and shut it down now!"

"Excuse me colonel, you seem to be laboring under the misconception that you own Afghanistan. Our operation is fully sanctioned by the Afghan government. Director Williams talked to President Karzai himself to set it up. So there is no need to worry about your precious battle space. Just stay out of our way and we'll strike a blow against terrorism and keep our tech out of the hands of the Ten-Rings. We'll even let you take credit for it!" Jennifer said sweetly.

Rhodes saw red. He almost couldn't process what he'd just heard. But there was one thing he could focus on: the name Riri Williams!

OoOoO

"Got a GUN DISH radar sweeping on that ridge. Got to be a ZSU-23-4; I'm on it!" STARC said with barely contained glee.

"Acknowledged!" Riri said as she swept her shoulder mounted mini-gun along the roofs surrounding a park near the center of the city. She used her gauntlet repulsors to take out individual targets as she (or JARVIS) saw them. Right now she was concerned about the many red dots on her HUD. There certainly turned out to be a lot more fighters present than they had planned for.

"Indications that many of these targets are Taliban, Al Qaeda and related fighters," JARVIS spoke as Riri cut down a group of men trying to set up an anti-tank missile launcher behind a wrecked car.

"You think?" Riri snarled as she had to dive to the left as mortar rounds began to fall into the park around her. She knew the Ten-Rings guys were evil, but it was becoming very obvious that they didn't give a rat's ass about worrying about friendly fire. Three fighters firing a wheeled heavy machine gun from behind a hole in a qalat wall blew up from a mortar round right before she was going to hit them with a repulsor blast.

"Really didn't expect all this military hardware," Riri said through clenched teeth. Luckily, they had yet to see any of the weapons that they had upgraded back when they were captives used against them. Riri hoped all of those had already been used.

JARVIS projected the likely source of the mortars by back-tracking their ballistic track. Riri fired the last of her missiles and hoped she'd not need them at the next target site. She'd already used up all of her flamethrower fuel on the equipment she'd found at a supply point. Too much of it was from Stark Industries. How had so much gotten stolen? Both those and the trucks meant to carry them belched black smoke into the air a few blocks away.

A blast knocked her off her feet and into the under carriage of a jingle-truck which had already been blown over in the battle. JARVIS' voice was calling to her but she wasn't tracking what he was saying. She groggily rolled over and her tracking system immediately locked on to the biggest threat in the area before glitching out. That threat being the T-72 tank whose turret was tracking towards her.

Riri tried to get up, but her system was doing a reboot due to the force of her hitting the truck. She brought up her right arm, hoping she could manually hit the barrel before it fired even as she knew it would take a miracle for her to manage that.

Yet before either she or the tank could fire, Iron-Man landed between them. With a jaunty, "Tank missile!" STARC deployed a small dart-like missile from his right forearm. This flew true and to Riri's amazement, the entire turret blew up and flew straight into the air.

Iron Man turned and his missile launchers deployed and began to fire micro-missiles which spread out all around them. "Come on, Boss, let's get you back into the game," STARC said as he walked over and helped her to her feet.

"Reboot complete. Are you alright, Ms. Williams? Sensors are not showing any problems," JARVIS asked worriedly.

"I'm okay. Just got the wind knocked out of me," Riri replied as explosions began to erupt all around them. Riri noticed that almost all of the previous red target dots on her HUD were gone. "I guess saving your missiles for a rainy day worked. How'd you blow up that tank with that toy of a missile?"

STARC laughed, "It's not hard. Soviet tanks of that era store their ammo right below the turret. A fuel line ring is right next to all that. The Israelis found that a kinetic strike at the right place could cause both to detonate creating a catastrophic kill."

Riri blinked at this, "I knew that. How did I forget that?" And she had known it. Ballistics was one of her specialties. "JARVIS, can we be accurate enough with the repulsors to do that without needing a missile?"

"We can if we channel through the chest canon. A bit tricky, but if I take control, it is doable," JARVIS replied.

STARC proved once again that his matrix was built from a once living person as he turned and looked up to the north-west. "We've got gunships inbound. Also, our drones are showing the Air Force is sniffing around. I think we should either make haste to the third target or move to extract."

Riri checked her HUD, "Let's try for the third target. The Party Bus needs a bit more time to get back into position. We can still abort and go to ground if needed. The terrain here favors us."

STARC gave a thumbs up, "Works for me!"

"StarkNet is registering a call between Colonel Rhodes to Ms. Pott's private line. Ms. Walters is taking it," JARVIS said as both the Ironheart and Iron Man suits roared into the air leaving broken vehicles, burning supplies and scores of dead terrorists behind them.

"Ruh-roh Shaggy! Rhodey is going to be pissed!" STARC joked.

Riri smiled. She'd never gotten along with Tony's military friend. Tweaking him was just an added bonus to this mission. "Well let's look sharp. Colonel Rhodes might not take our "get out of jail; we've got permission" card."

OoOoO

COL Rhodes was surrounded by various officers yelling into their phones or headsets. This barely registered as he was doing the same thing. "No sir, I can't explain what we're seeing. No sir, I don't know where they're getting the power either. Sir, sir, please calm down! No, I don't know how Stark Industries managed this! I was involved with almost everything Tony did prior to going to Afghanistan. This must relate to however the Williams girl escaped. Yes sir, I know that doesn't make much sense, but it's the best lead we've got. Wait one sir...I need to call you back. They are on the move again!"

Rhodes clicked off the phone even as the Joint Chief of Staff member continued to yell at him. He double-timed over to where Airmen Connolly was bringing up feed captured by an OA-10A. A forward air control variant of the A-10 Warthog, it was mainly used to help direct air-to-ground attacks. It had been diverted from combat ops being conducted further north near Khost. It had been able to capture some video before the targets accelerated away and it had to abort due to running low on fuel.

When the images came up, COL Rhodes' heart sank. There was no mistaking the glow of the repulsors coming from the hands and feet of the armored suits in the shaky feed. One suit was in muted green and silver while the other was in a color scheme Rhodes remembered from being on one of Tony's cars. That this suit lip over and waved at the plane before reorienting and then both suits accelerating away in a blast of energy brought a crazy idea to mind.

Tony wasn't dead.

Rhodes couldn't believe that Tony had faked his own capture. There were too many dead to make him ever believe his friend would be so calculating. But what if Riri had been a diversion? A way for Tony to disappear and let Riri take the heat for the change in Stark Industries? There was no way that slip of a girl could create anything like this, especially in the short time. No, he'd bet real money that not only Tony Stark was alive, but he was in that red and gold suit.

He'd also bet real money that the other suit housed Happy Hogan. Yes, it made sense. Rhodes had no idea how those suits were being powered, but it made a sick sort of sense. Tony was supposedly dead. Happy, for all his ubiquity at many of Tony's event was a non-person; easily missed among the insanity of Tony's life. He could easily disappear to learn how to operate that suit. Riri Williams was probably back at the Mazar-E-Shariff site monitoring the whole thing.

COL Rhodes called the USAF general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "Sir, I think I know what's going on. To put it bluntly, I don't think Tony Stark is dead. Furthermore, I think he's gone and created the game-changer we've been looking for. Yes sir, that's exactly what I'm saying. Yes sir, I'll get the orders out now. Detain at all cost."

COL Rhodes hung up and sighed. There was no way he could get Tony out of this hole he'd dug for himself. That and he was so going to gut-punch Tony hard when he saw him again for what Tony had put him through.

OoOoO

"Heads up! I think we've got a large Ten-Rings convoy on the move from our target," STARC said. "Do want to ignore it or attack?"

Before Riri could answer, JARVIS cut in, "I'm afraid we have a situation. I'm monitoring multiple examples going over military channels of 'detain at all costs' orders. They specify not only the Ironheart and Iron Man "operators" but they specifically list what amounts to arrest orders for Tony Stark, Harold Hogan and Riri Williams."

"What? Tony's dead! What do they expect the troops to do? Dig up his body out of that cave?" Riri raged. "And Happy? What, did he not smile at the First Lady or something?"

"Rhodey can't believe you did all this, Riri," STARC said in a far more serious tone than he normally used. "He must think Tony's still alive and Happy is in your suit. But first, I suggest we destroy this convoy and then abort."

"We are seeing a marked increase in launches throughout the theater," JARVIS agreed.

Riri mulled her options. "Okay, we're going to hit the convoy. The Party Bus should make it here in time before things get nasty. JARVIS, if you haven't already, alert Pepper, Jen and especially Happy. Get them somewhere safe. Order an immediate evac order for our people in Mazar-E-Shariff. I'm betting the army is going to be told to do a Thunderbolt Ross and grab our stuff and try to weasel out of their illegal actions later. Have Jen contact President Karzai if she can and see if he can protest this act against his agreement with Stark Industries."

"In the works now. Should I put out a yellow alert for Stark facilities for a possible lock-down?" JARVIS asked.

"I would say yes but ask Pepper about it. If she agrees or even says to go to lock-down, then make it so!" Riri said.

"That's how you do it!" STARC quipped.

Riri rolled her eyes that in this tense situation, STARC would focus on her inadvertent Star Trek reference. "Okay, I'll take the front of the convoy. Since you have more munitions left, STARC, hit them from the rear and work up. JARVIS, find us the best extraction routes if we have to leave in a hurry and possible places to hide out if needed."

"By your command, Imperious Leader!" STARC said with a jaunty salute as he accelerated towards the end of the long line of trucks which were laboring through the sharp ups and downs of the rugged mountain road.

"Dork!" Riri muttered to herself as she activated her mini-gun as she swooped in and landed in front of the lead vehicle, which was some type of utility truck, she didn't recognize with an old Soviet era anti-aircraft gun in the bed. She idly thought it was probably a ZPU-4 due to the four barrels as she shot twin repulsors directly into the engine block.

She was gratified to see the vehicle flip over and land on its top (crushing the gun crew) like in some Hollywood action film. The cargo truck behind it jinked widely to avoid smashing into the wreck but a blast from her repulsors blasted off one of the front wheels. Unfortunately for the passengers in the truck, the driver had turned away from the shoulder along the mountain-side. Thus the truck careened over the embankment wall and began the long spiral down the mountain side. Whatever the truck had been carrying detonated after just four spirals down.

The rest of the convoy was skidding to a stop and already her HUD started filling up with red dots. She smiled grimly as she started forward, already angry that none of the people facing her seem to consider surrender. A bloodbath seemed unavoidable.

OoOoO

Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar was not having a good day. Confused reports were coming in that Gulmira and Shkin had been attacked. Yet so far, he hadn't been able to get anyone who was actually present during the attack to find out who was responsible. He feared it was SHIELD given his spies should have given warning of any sort of traditional military strike against his forces.

As Raza finished up a call from a panicky underling on his satellite phone, he realized he hadn't had a good day since the day Riri Williams had escaped him. The scaring that marred the right side of his face and scalp were a minor annoyance compared to having failed the Mandarin. After Stane had left with the armored suit, the normally phlegmatic Mandarin had shown his displeasure through creative use of his Rings of Power. Raza still felt that perhaps the few men that had survived Riri's escape but who had perished due to the Mandarin's wrath had been the lucky ones.

Still, regret was for lesser men and Raza refused to be broken. Others might conspire against the Mandarin, hoping to take the power of his rings for themselves, but Raza knew better. No one knew how old he was, but Raza's research showed he was at least over a millennia and might be closer to two or even three. One did not live that long by being careless.

No, Raza saw men like Obadiah Stane and saw his road to power. The weapon and warrior were useless without a leader who could see past the battlefield and see the world as it was and what it could be. Like his master, Raza secretly was contemptuous of his fellow fighters who strove to turn back the clock, technologically and culturally. They would be content to live the lives of their ancestor. Tending their flock like the sheep they themselves were. How they raged over women without veils! Over the corrosive effects of television and the internet. They wanted to go back to being big fish in tiny ponds scattered through this land. Pathetic.

Raza wasn't going to end up some tribal warlord, fighting over the same territory with the same enemies over and over again like his ancestors had. No, Genghis Khan had shown with the right leadership and troops, one could conquer and do so by absorbing the tools and weapons of one's enemies.

And he had more of a handle on the latter than anyone, especially the Mandarin, realized. Stark and the rest might have been brilliant, but they had their own cultural blinders. They saw his rag-tag band and just assumed they were stupid, illiterate peasants with AK-47's screaming about the glory of Allah. No matter how true that was for many of Raza's men, it was not true for him. Dr. Fazli's insults had been true to the mark. Raza himself had grown up to a wealthy family in Punjab and he had had a fine education. Therefore, he had not been fooled by the careful masquerade Stark's people had orchestrated for his men to see. Raza had seen past all that.

And for all his plans and determination, Raza knew that Fate favored the fortunate and he had been fortunate in this instance. The laptop Riri had been using was a top-of-the-line piece of Stark tech. Hacking it would normally be impossible, but Raza had an in. For all that HYRDRA like to promote it being one organization with multiple heads, the truth was the 'heads' were often at odds. The Mandarin had standing orders to steal from other HYDRA units if they could get away with it.

Raza had managed to 'acquire' a shipment from one of AIMs labs in Kashmir. Most of the tech he had dutifully turned over to the Mandarin's science cell. Yet he had kept one piece for himself; a device which (according to the documentation) had been part of a SHIELD operation in the 90's which implied the tech was alien in origin. Whatever its origin, Raza found that it could be used to remotely read out any digital storage device if within 10 feet.

So while Stark and Williams had crafted their Iron Man miracle, Raza had been leaching the information right out of their supposedly impenetrable computer. Certainly there had been holes in the data. Both scientists kept quite a bit of the knowledge they were using in their heads. Still, Raza was confident that with a little work, he'd be able to replicate the miniature ARC reactor. Once this was accomplished, it would be Raza who sat at the table with the likes of the Mandarin. It would be his modern knights raining death from the sky and he would go to his ancestors as famous and revered as the Great Khan had been.

Raza just needed to finesse getting from where he was now to that future day. At the beginning, all would be against him. Still, Fate had smiled on him so far. He had survived what would have broken or killed lesser men. Raza was confident that he was fated for greatness if Fate was kind.

The explosions at the front of the convoy and then at the back seemed to put lie to how kind Fate was willing to be.

Raza took a small measure of profaning Allah in a particularly vile manner as he and his bodyguards leapt out of their vehicle the moment it stopped. He knew that no matter how much safety an up-armored vehicle provided, it was still just a stationary target when boxed in as they obviously were.

Raza looked forwards and his heart sank. Some sort of energy weapon was being used at the front of the convoy. Explosions to his rear made him turn and it was like getting punched in the gut. An obvious improvement of the armor he'd sent off with Stane, decked out in brilliant crimson and gold, was firing energy pulses at his men as they tried to scatter. Just as it had happened before, this Iron Man shrugged off the bullets shot his way. One such foe was enough to freeze a brave fighter's heart. Two was unimaginable.

Raza made an immediate decision. He pointed up towards a steep part of the mountain that was covered in enough brush and trees to hopefully give them cover. He gave the universal infantry hand motion for his men to move out. First rule of being in an ambush; get out of the kill-zone.

"Sir!"

Raza turned to see one of his men pointing to the sky. In the distance, a drone was circling.

Raza pointed to one of his men who had one of the last SAM missiles that Riri Williams had worked on. "Kill that and catch up with us." He then turned and hustled as fast as he could up the steep slope not caring that he had most certainly consigned the man to death.

Sure enough, it had not taken long after the missile has soared up to strike the drone that a green and silver suit roared over and cut down the man as well as the rest of the fighters who had been in the area . The green suit banked in a way that made Raza worry that it would be turning back to make a run on his position. Instead, both the red and green Iron Men seemed to pause their attack before linking up to make one last sustained pass along the road, ensuring all the vehicles were wrecked.

They then sped off towards the south-west leaving the remaining fighters to fall to their knees and thank Allah for their lives. Raza was sure that their deliverance had much more to do with the US Air Force than Allah. This was borne out as two contrails could be seen coming from the north-east.

Raza turned to his lieutenant, "Find out if any of our motorcycles have survived. We will take them back to the depot. Have the men abandon the convoy and scatter. I want them back at the depot in at least two days' time."

His lieutenant nodded and pointed to a few men who followed him back down the slope. Raza watched his man bark orders and begin to reign in the chaos the Iron Men had caused. He looked at the contrails left over from their retreat and dreamed. He had lived another day. One day it would be him leading knights like that. It would be his enemies who suffered as he had suffered today. And as an Iron Khan, he would forcibly wrench his homeland into the future.

XxXxX

A/N: I had originally had this as one chapter. Then I realized that action sequences in writing are pretty much the same way they are in TV and movies: they eat up a lot of time (or length in the case of writing) even if they represent a sliver of real time. Even then, I'm pushing the fight between the Ironheart/Iron Man and Rhodes and USAF to the next chapter as well as the fallout of the arrest order.

Technical: The generic term used for when a military grade weapon is put onto a civilian vehicle. In the Middle-East, Africa and Central Asia, you see a lot of these. Usually it's a truck (Toyotas being the favorite in Afghanistan) with either a 12.7mm DShK heavy machine gun or a ZPU-2 or 4 anti-aircraft gun. Some might have some attached "hillbilly" armor but mostly it's just a truck right off the lot with the gun added.

Qalat: Fortified home in Afghanistan. Mostly refers just to the wall. I flew over quite a few that had these impressive walls and the home itself was basically just a yurt.

HISHE: I couldn't help but toss a nod into that great YouTube series! Hope you all caught it!

Iron Khan: Who could Raza find to help him make figure out how to get a working miniature ARC reactor? It would have to be someone who had access to the original reactor, maybe one known for stealing tech from Stark. Someone like maybe Ivan Venko? (cue ominous music)