Chapter 9: Liberty Lost
November 4th, 2026
New York City, 11:13 Hours
For Americans, war has always been something far and remote, it would happen there not here they think. In fact for most of their lives, the Americans have only seen or heard of wars in foreign lands, separated by oceans far away from their daily lives. But Fate has a twisted sense of humor with the Charon being anchored in the harbor of New York.
"We're getting reports coming out from the harbor about an unidentified vessel anchored at the Manhattan Bay. Authority have made efforts to communicate but still no response-" the news anchor woman's report was cut short when her cameraman panned away from her face and zoomed in on the Charon much to her annoyance. "Hey what are you looking at? This is a news report right here!" Said the news anchor woman as she tried to rein in her cameraman only to turn around at the sound of rotating helicopter rotor blades.
Their televised coverage brought the sight of modern warfare to the shores of America and into the living room of every Americans watching at the moment. The gunship was an Mi-17 Hip gunship utility helicopter taking off from the Charon's deck after being elevated there by an elevator inside the cargo hold. The gunship sped off and flew towards the small and undefended Ellis Island and fired off a salvo of rockets into the immigration center on the island, leveling a good portion of the immigrant building at a moment's notice.
Before the Americans can have a moment to contemplate on the shocking turn of events, they were bombarded by footage of enemy forces rappelling out of the helicopters down on the islands and began to take over Ellis first. The rest flew to Liberty Island and occupied the defenseless islands within minutes, establishing their occupation of the three islands in the Manhattan Bay area.
Much to the chagrin of the American viewers, the invaders were equipped with gunships like the aging but still venerable Mi-24 Hind models, Mi-17 Hip gunships cruising around swatting off enemy patrol boats and demolishing the wooden boardwalk bridge of Ellis Island linking it to the rest of New York and Jersey. For the Americans watching, war has come home and nothing will ever be the same again. For the news cycle of America, it's prime time.
[hr]
Central Asia, Taklamakan Desert, 24:13 Hours (Local Time)
As promised, Stuka led Girain on foot back to his base, after being able to come into range of Orion Sword's Herons, the two were airlifted by them back to Orion Central in the Taklamakan Desert. Hanging just under the carriage of the Herons, suspended by the magnetically locked cables made Girain felt nauseous as she was vertically lifted from their pick up point towards the LZ which was Orion Sword's base.
The world below for her was like a sandbox with occasional camel riders, houses and humans like insects to a titan like her, Godzilla did not follow her, oddly trusting of her decision to depart on her own. It was out of character for him, she thought. But she didn't have time to dwell on the matter and came to a definitive conclusion, only hypothesis.
Once they have arrived at Orion Sword base, the Herons hovered over what appeared to be a middle of nowhere in the desert and dropped the two off before flying back to their airfield. Girain on instinct attempted to access her map and GPS coordinates, only to find that her map was scrambled and rendered useless, static and grainy screen display. The only thing she got left to navigate was her compass as she looked around attempting to find a noticeable landmark. "Orion Central, this is Unit R-1001 Stuka, have returned with Unit Athena escort requesting entry." Stuka called on his coms and soon heard a human voice replying to him.
"Affirmative Stuka, we hear you. Welcome home big guy, and Athena, welcome to Orion Sword, make yourself at home." The Orion Sword controller stated plainly with a rather relaxed and casual tone compared to the other personnel and operators of the organization, but as far as anyone is concerned, most of Orion Sword had a laid back attitude not so different from the SOCOM community they spawned out from.
Girain saw the massive rampart rose up from the desert revealing what appeared to be Orion Sword's tunnel entry, it wasn't just a cramped tunnel, rather it was a sprawling underground city/military complex rolled into one. Stuka could walk right into the tunnel entry and followed it to an elevator with Girain. Once the two were on the pad, the elevator slowly lower them down from the surface to roughly 300 meters underneath the ground, cutting her completely from external communications.
"Welcome Athena, to Orion Sword you are the first GDI Combat mecha unit to have the honor of entering our premises." Stuka commended her with a slightly more uplifting tone than before, he led her through a series of corridors with catwalks and scaffolding for humans to traverse. They all look at Girain, marveling at her size and stature, taking photos of her with their phones, tablets and cameras as she walked with Stuka. "Not sure if that's an honor, but thank you nonetheless." Girain awkwardly replied trying to be polite and friendly towards Stuka in a place that can turn hostile towards her at any given moment.
"Hey look, she's pretty awkward around him, maybe they're a couple." one of the Orion Sword operators there joked and smirked playfully, one look at his facial hair and skin tone, the others can tell he was an Uzbek, one of the many Central Asian ethnic groups that chose to fight for the organization against the Russian imperialists. "Dream on Dosharak, if you can stand at their height, then maybe we'll let you be the matchmaker." The others remarked with laughter while Girain and Stuka tried to look away hiding their embarrassment at the thought of office romance between rivaling organizations.
"Uh I'm not in the mood for Romeo and Juliet." she sarcastically remarked, to which Stuka nodded to her cautiously as he held her hand and led her to a large common room area for mecha units. There she found herself in the presence of 9 other identical Rex Units to Stuka. One was on weightlifting, the other was doing weapon maintenance, others were checking their equipment, running drills and simulations as well as watching the news of what was happening in the US.
"All units, we have a special guest tonight, please greet MFS-4 Athena." Stuka informed his fellow Rex Units, causing the navy blue Rex Units to turn at Girain and approached her gently before they all grouped up in front of her like a bunch of mewing kittens in front of a new female cat, begging her to be their mother. "Greetings unit Athena, how can I assist you?" They asked in a creepy monotonous unison. A typical example of Orion Sword regimented behavioral programming for their much vaunted Rex Units, it didn't sit well with Girain who felt creeped out by their unison droning voices.
"Uh… hi guys?" She sheepishly replied with a step back. "I guess perhaps you could show me around the place and help my accommodation until I'm free to return to the GDI…" She attempted to be reasonable, to which the Rex Units all nodded to her and began to lead her towards what appeared to be a maintenance chamber. There they had various mechanical arms on the sealing waiting for a mecha unit to come into place for repair or mods. Operating these was of course the chief technician Wallace Barringer himself, he waved at her from the Observatory higher up, the rather pudgy looking middle-aged man eagerly waited for Girain to walk in and let him operate on her and it didn't seem to make her any more comfortable.
"You look like you are waiting for a chance to molest me up there Barringer." She retorted with a deadpan tone, causing him to snort and nearly burst out laughing. "With all due respect ma'am, Mr. Grey would have me hung by my entrail if I did." He remarked nonchalantly to her before seeing Girain stepping on to the pad for maintenance.
There she saw that a cable latched into the neural outlet port on the back of her neck, it snapped into place, giving her a jolt of static electricity coursing through her body. She felt her nerves grew numb and her body went into a limp status. She could still talk and listen but she could not feel anything else let alone move her head around while she faces the observatory.
She noticed a taller more robust man clad in advanced cybernetic armored suit and ballistic mask walked into the observatory to sit down next to Barringer. He appeared to slouch over the chair as he looked at directly in the eyes, facing her attentively while marveling her mechanical body structure.
"Mr. Grey no doubt." She stated, seeing him nodding to her observation. "Indeed, your reputation precedes you Athena, I am honored to meet you in person."; "Same here sir, although you are an international wanted man and I'm supposed to bring you in." She replied to him, seeing him nodding in understanding towards her while Stuka was assuming position next to her to have himself worked on. Similar to Girain, he had a cable lodged into the neural port on the back of his neck to keep him numb while his armor suit was being removed for repair.
"Even when we will inevitably start shooting each other again, I would take no joy in destroying in you, my dear." he remarked with a reverend tone towards her, making Girain felt somewhat weird by his attraction and apparent admiration for her.
"Knowing your service records, the feelings mutual as well." She sighed out, the mechanical arms above her were going over her body, they first began to cut out her armor plates and remove the damaged portions off of her. The other arms were conducting deep surgery into artificial muscles, the operation would have been painful and stinging for her if it weren't for the cable disconnecting her consciousness from her body.
Noticing the changes, Girain felt somewhat more relief at the operation as she was being worked on, but her concern was not completely relieved when she noticed that other mechanical claws were removing her transponders for security measure. They were working deep around her head and torso, where her transponders were installed along with GPS equipment. With those removed, she was without maps or coms to actively communicate with others. As such, she was left a silent mecha unit only able to observe Mr. Grey and Barringer.
In its place, she saw an Orion Sword marked GPS signal transponder and their own brand of satellite phone, radio equipment ranging from UHF, VHF, HF, being installed into her. "Let me guess, keep your base hidden at all times?" She asked after the equipment was installed into her and synchronized with her system. "Indeed, a security measure we must take. Who knows what those pesky Chinese would want to do? Or the Russians? When we're done, we'll give you back your transponder and coms. For the time being, tuned in on Orion freqs."
Once the work was done, and their armor were reassembled together, Girain felt oddly at ease by the care given to her by Orion Sword, she then on instincts ran a diagnostic check on her system to see if her system was safe from malware or spyware. Her diagnostic ran through every single application in her system, her lines of code and BIOS and hard drive. Nothing. She took a sigh of relief at this knowing that for now she's safe. "I thought that you were going to install something into me, would have been the perfect chance then and there to hijack me, like you did to Shiryu."
Grey shook his head nonchalantly to her statement, "Pragmatic yes, but not the best of time. As long as the mole is still out there, we are all still in danger. He already compromised the Rex Units by leaking their tech specs." His disclosure was most shocking to hear, and rightly so for Girain as it would mean anyone with enough money and madness can afford their own anti Rex Unit miracle weapon. "That big of a leak? I'm surprised you haven't stamped them out yet." Girain blurted out in utter shock, "There's always more than a mole Athena. It would be wise to understand the actual depth of their connection. Do you know how hard it is to provide logistic service for a single AH-1 gunship? It's not like you can make the entire trail invisible." Barringer remarked his observation to Girain who then took it with a bit of thought as she leaned in closer on the observatory.
"So in short, the net is vast and we are but grains of sand in it." She concluded seeing the two nodding to her hypothesis, Grey seems to be the most impressed by her observation and thought process. "They made the right choice naming you Athena, we'll make sure the mole is either dead or compromised. You have my word for it. As for accommodation, well, you can share space with Stuka's squad, I'm sure the cooperation would be more than welcomed by them."; "Thank you sir, Mr. Grey. That would be all." She softly thanked him before proceeding to follow Stuka and his fellow Rex Units back to their common room.
As she followed him, Girain glanced over at Stuka noticing that he was holding her hand the whole way, it wasn't on ordered like he usually does. Rather t seems to be out of a genuine interest in her, a fondness it seems at first. "So uh Stuka…" She shyly began, catching his attention as he panned his head over to face hers. "Yes Athena?"; "Stuka, I uh… don't know how to say this but… I think I actually like you. A lot." hearing this made his heart jumped and skip a beat, he heard from her own voice that she seems to have reserved affection for him. "You do? You… care for me... that much?" he asked wondering if what she said was real.
"Yes I do." She confirmed it making him feeling much more flustered than before. "At first it was just for survival on the Andes. But after Greece, I felt that we made a pretty great team. You did save my life in the Andes and Greece." Hearing this made Stuka felt much more mellow than he should have, his head began to spin around and he felt dazzled by the kind words coming from Girain. And once they were in the common room of the Rex Units, he then reached to her shoulders with both hands, prompting her to kneel to his height face each other. "Thank you Athena, I was only doing my job but I am pleased to know that it was exceptional for you."
Girain then placed her hands on his cheeks holding his face looking right at hers before whispering softly to him. "Stuka, may I see your face?" She asked softly to him, seeing him nodded prompting her to let go of his cheeks before he reached up to unplugged his helm's locks, the hissed was followed by a plopping sound as he removed the sleek and angular navy blue helmet to reveal his true face.
Unlike Godzilla, his face seems much more narrow, it was slim down and angular at around the snout being shorter and stubbed compared to Godzilla. His ears appeared to be angled backwarded while then his most defining feature were his fangs being long and saber like, almost like a saber tooth tiger. In fact, his feline like feature also extend to his eyes which were emerald green with a narrow cat like iris slit.
For a moment Girain was silenced, she appeared to be examining his facial feature and appearance, he felt nervous, paranoid even that she might be judging him harshly in her head. Maybe he wasn't handsome enough for her like Godzilla, "Am I…?" he nervously asked, fearing that she might confirm his hypothesis.
"I think you look fine. As far as Rex Units are concerned, I think you might be the most handsome of the bunch." Girain remarked kindly to him, although she wasn't able to smile under her stiff armor faceplates, she did come off as genuine in her affection for Stuka before she nuzzle his snout. Stunted and taken completely off guard by the act of kindness she displayed, Stuka proceeded to nuzzle back at her vigorously.
The action did not go unnoticed however, since there were humans watching them along with Mr. Grey and Barringer who were watching from their observatory via CCTV. Grey and Barringer were highly intrigued by the display of emotional maturity on Girain's part and Stuka's own apparent respect and affection for her was much higher than anticipated. "You think that's a problem?" Barringer asked while musing on the sight of Girain and Stuka cuddling and purring. "No, I would say this is what should have gone down between me and the GDI. But Fate has other plans of course." Grey nonchalantly remarked, he didn't seem at all annoyed by the display of love and affection between them. "My only concern is a child out of the wedlock between them. The public won't take it well to know more are being bred, secondly it's the question of logistic but that's for another day."
Barringer nodded in agreement before handing Grey a collection of X-Ray photos of Girain's interior, Lenox himself took the photos and examined them carefully, noting that indeed in terms of mechanical engineering, Girain might be the apex with her synthetic organs and artificial muscles giving her a degree of fluidity and mobility beyond what other machines could do. Her DNA Computer A.I also proved to be quite efficient in solving complex problems and tactical as well as strategic decision making. However, her ability to process emotion and display them with a humanlike manner was more than what most would bargain for. And yet none of those intrigued Grey, he was however paying attention to her lung area, where what appeared to be an atomic organ furnace was developing.
Barringer was musing at the photo the most, the X-Ray shot of her innards seems to have detected a small dose of radiation coming out of her, what was odd to them both was that this furnace as it seem was only roughly a week old. Its growth and development indicated by the way it tapped into her synthetic lungs suggest that the atomic furnace might be aiming for recreating Godzilla's internal organs.
"Where do you think this will go?" Grey asked, pondering the possibilities in his head. "Don't know. It can go anywhere, timing places it back to around her contact with the Scion piece was made. Whatever that Scion did to her, she's changing. Like a rapid growth in her organic components, using existing synthetic organs to develop and map out. Either way I'm not sure how or where will this go." Barringer's words were of course laced with confusion, it was clear the chief technician did not know where this new development will go in the long run. This only leave Grey ever more concerned, Girain might be in danger, he thought, but just how dangerous exactly, remains the question.
[hr]
New York at that same time…
The team was ready near the Winter Estate, Orion Sword moved fast and did not waste time when they mobilized a strike team against their common enemy with the GDI. The team members were all wearing black uniforms from top to bottom, MICH helmets with tinted gas masks, GPNVG-18s, balaclava masks to hide their faces, Tactical Plate Carrier Vest with pouches for spare magazines on the front for their H&K M416s.
The individual fireteams were scattered around the premises and were communicating with each other via morse codes, flashing strobe lights at one another before finally moving out. "Rifle-1 this is Rifle 2, in position and holding over." The north entry team called on the coms, the sound of crickets chirping can be heard and snow rustling under their footsteps as they moved under the cover of the shrubs and vegetation of the forest. "We hear you, Rifle-1 moving to position, ETA 10 secs, out."
Each of the strike teams consist of 8 men, a total of 16 men divided into eight 2-men buddy teams to clear out the individual rooms of the building. "Rifle-1, engaging tangos now." The Orion Sword commandos each armed with an MP5/10SD took aim at the security personnel around the perimeter of the building and took synchronized shots at the targets dropping the two tangos instantly along with their guard dog.
"Pooch is snoozing permanently." one of them remarked coldly as they moved up closer to the building, taking crouching stances under the cover of trees. "Rifle-2, just took out a bunch of guards, something's not right here."; "Say again Rifle-2, didn't read your last over." Rifle-2's Pointman as running a checklist on the man he just took down, what struck him the most was the fact that these security personnel appear to be rather well armed and equipped for an estate guard.
"Tactical vest, coms with Army encryption, M67 frag, M84 flashbang. M4A1 Carbine. This guy ain't getting it from your local security firm."; "Affirmative, all Rifles be advised, we got armed tangos in the building. Expect trouble." Rifle Lead warned them, as the teams stacked up by the doorways of the Estate's front and pool entrances, they picked the lock and sneak snake cams under the crevices of the doors to gather intel on the opposition on the other side of the doors.
Rifle-1's snake cam showed multiple tangos roaming around the house, ransacking the place and pile up books and notes, anything flammable into a mound inside the living room with gasoline poured on. "Alright, they're burning evidence time to move in, breach charge up. Flashbang at the ready. Go." The team leader ordered with his breacher specialist came to the door and tied a doorknob breaching charge on the large stubby knob. He yanked the primer fuse below and got clear of the blast, "Breaching, breaching!" The charge blew up and one of the Orion Sword operators lobbed in the M84 flashbang, stunning the tangos in the room.
Rifle-1 then pushed inside gunning down multiple hostiles in the living room before they began to fan out and slowly, methodically clear out other rooms of the building, "Shit, they're here. Cops?" One of the securities asked his colleague as they hide behind the kitchen counter, "Fuck knows man. The lady called and said she wanted her house-" Before he could finish what he was saying, the Orion Sword operatives slain them both with their MP5/10SDs. "Two X-Rays down, kitchen is clear over."; "Roger that Rifle-1, moving upstairs now."
As the teams continued their methodical clearing of the building, they dropped more tangos, some were hiding inside of closets and wardrobes or even bathroom, others were ducking behind beds and furniture, trying to make use of blind corners to take a shot at the incoming Orion Sword teams. But they were not well trained enough to pull off their ambushes, the Orion Sword members covered each other, flanking through hallways and rooms before gunning down their targets without hesitation.
"All clear, all Rifles, be advised building is secured, I repeat building is secured over." The squad leader Rifle Actual called out, giving them all a collective sigh of relief feeling that the hardest part was over. 1-2 and 1-3 were down in the cellar with 2-1 and 2-2 to support, beside a wine cellar of obscenely rich people, they came across what appeared to be a rather odd chamber, one that was built to be hidden from others filled with hieroglyphic writings and inscriptions of texture never seen before by any humans.
"Actual this is 1-1, I got something here for ya, maybe command want to take a look at this." 1-1 called out, taking photos with his digital camera of the safe room, he found various photos of individuals with a red circle on them, some were of Mr. Winter the owner of the estate. Others were oddly enough, photos of Rex Units like Shiryu and Chikiryu, with some of Girain and Godzilla. "Someone's doing their homework, this looks like a hit list or something, someone's painting targets of Corsair and Athena. Couldn't be Winter though since he's pretty much a dumbass." 1-1 mused as he worked around the evidence trying to interpret the data there.
As he did so, he found a map of what appeared to be the globe dating back to prehistoric ages, perhaps Mesozonic Age judging by the continental layout. It was hung on the wall next to a map of the modern Earth with the red markers circled around a particular area in what would become the Atlantic Ocean, just beyond the straits of Gibraltar but now apparently sunken, all these were linked together by red strings around ancient, possibly prehistoric depiction of the Scion of Atlantis that Stuka and Girain have been collecting, but there were three pieces of the Scion. "Rifle Actual, this is 1-1, we got a jackpot here over."
[hr]
Central Park staging area, Manhattan
The CH-47s were ready, at this point these helicopters were being spooled up with the Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment being loaded up as a QRF strike force, their back up was the 101st "Screaming Eagles" Airborne Division. The Airborne troops were locked and loaded, their M4A1s cocked and ready to rock, their M249s and Battle Rifles were ready with their rounds chambered, they boarded the ramps of the Army CH-47s with their platoon leaders making head counts for their company commanders.
The Rangers were using MK16 SCAR-L and MK17 SCAR-H along with M249s, M240s similar to the Airborne Infantry with various other attachments like grenade launchers, sniper scope, bipods depending on their roles. Amongst them was Nicolas Williams, kitted out in his full battle gear and brandishing his SCAR-L with EGLM attachment and a Red Dot Sight on his rifle.
He boarded the CH-47 and saw the soldier sitting in his opposite was an Airborne, obviously 101st. His name tag said Grady with the man apparently in his late 20s and early 30s with a 1st Lieutenant insignia on his uniform. The man appeared to have an M4A1 with ACOG scope mounted along with laser module on its side rail and a foregrip on the under barrel rail. He seem to have his face downward looking at an envelope in his hand, he gazed at it intently as if it were a love letter, Nicolas took notice and was curious at who it was meant for.
"Don't you have a wife already?" He asked, Lt. Grady took notice of Nicolas and shook his head and made a wryly smile out of nervousness. "Nah man, Carleen ain't my type man. I mean she just doesn't feel natural." He wrangled his own words, seemingly having difficulty to make his point clear.
"You're cheating her for who? Some $2 hoe crawled out of some Hoboken whorehouse?"; "Hey for one I'm from Vegas, and two I ain't cheating for some two bits THOT, I'm talking about THE queen of the GDI. Yeah someday I'm gonna hitch her and she's gonna an American." His boast from an uncontrollable mouth caused the whole passenger cabin to burst into laughter at his statement thinking it was a joke, he kept his serious face on with a shaking head in disapproval while Nick and his Ranger chalk laughed their heads off.
"Ya serious? Ya serious? Are you really serious? Let me ask you this J, back in Saradia she saved your ass and you helped her out. But you're a sidekick and let's not forget, she's over 100 meters. You're like 1/10th of her size. No way that's gonna work." Nicolas advised Jason in an honest friendly manner trying to take the letter away from his hands before being swatted off by Jason.
"Hell no man, I made my decision, and I ain't turning around on it. After this is over, this thing will go straight for the mailbox."; "Yeah we'll be waiting for the reply letter, probably enough to cover my family's entire block." the passenger cabin laughed on at Jason while he kept his letter under his BDU inside a personal pocket.
As the CH-47s flew over the islands of Ellis, Liberty and Governor, the Rangers and Airborne Infantry of the Screaming Eagles, were given the sight of Manhattan Bay area from the area out of their CH-47s and UH-60s Blackhawk. "All callsigns this is Eagle-6, Snow Eagle. I repeat, Snow Eagle, mission's a go, good luck and godspeed everyone." with the codeword given, the UH-60s made a flyby over the smallest of the three, Ellis Island and began to spray M134 rounds on Jonah's mercenaries garrisoned there.
Some other Blackhawks circled around in orbit, laying down suppressive fire on the other end of the island while the Chinooks came in disembarking troops by the southern side of the island. One by one the CH-47s disembarked their chalks before flying into holding patterns.
They circled around raining minigun rounds down on the enemies running on the ground, while then the Rangers like Nicolas and Screaming Eagles like Jason began to fan out and retake the island one building at a time. Due to the initial bombardment, the Immigration Center was leveled, creating many hiding spots for the enemies.
Jason and his platoon of airborne infantry fought through the rubble of surrounding apartment blocks. Each time, they let Nicolas and his Ranger chalk to move up take point while they followed behind filling the gaps with their M4A1s, M249s, occasional MK14 EBRs, waiting for the enemies to make their first move and pop up to play what was essentially a whack-a-mole game.
"Clear!" One of the privates shouted as he trained the holographic sight around the rubble of the Immigration Center as he moved about tactically with his teammates following closely to cover for him. As they came closer to the Immigration Center, they saw a pair of Jonah's fighters slinking through the rubble of the Immigration Center, "Contact! Two tangos with AKs, he's by the counter to the front!" One of the Rangers shouted out, tossing a frag grenade at the counter to flush out the enemies, surely enough, as the tangos attempted to move, the grenade detonated leaving a mess of gore, human remains, blood and organs splattered on the floor and wall. "Stay switched on, these guys could be anywhere around here." Williams barked out reminding his Rangers not to relent or let their guards down.
As they pushed on, clearing through the rubble, with the crackling of muzzle flashes and sporadic gunfire echoed through the air, the RTO of the Screaming Eagles paused for a moment to check in with command and report situation progress. "Eagle-6 this is Ajax-6 Romeo, we've secured Ellis Island, took out roughly a half company size force, waiting for instructions over." The radio operator of Jason's platoon spoke to their commanding officer on the satellite radio he had on his back while resting his M4A1 on its stock with his right hand holding the weapon's foregrip.
"Ajax-6 this is Eagle-6, I have a new priority for you over. We have intel confirming hostages on Liberty Island, we have a priority 1 to rescue them or else." The colonel spoke to them causing some confusion to the radio operator who asked back in confusion. "Say again Eagle-6? What do you mean by 'or else'? Shouldn't the SEALs or Delta handle this?" he asked in slight confusion and grumble as he stayed crouch to listen on his commander's instructions carefully. "That's an affirmative Ajax-6. We need you to conduct assault on the island's northern edge as diversion. The SEALs will come in from the South and secure the hostages. Copy?"
He nodded before giving his CO 1st Lt. Grady a glance to relay the message, "Solid copy Eagle-6, we'll get moving out." But while the Airborne infantry and Rangers began to assemble for their rapid assault on Liberty Island, their commanding officer, Colonel Foster, was by the Battery Park looking at Liberty Island with her binoculars. The colonel sighed out in despair seeing the Statue of Liberty standing tall but the island itself was overrun with hostile forces moving around patrolling the place with BTRs, BMPs, UAZs and D-30 howitzers.
But most attention worthy for her was the sight of an enemy cruise missile battery erect and ready to launch, the weapon itself she could tell was an Iskander ballistic missile ready to fire. Her first instinct kicks in as she uttered tersely to her RTO standing next to her under the cold snowy November air, a bonfire. "Call in the strike."l "But sir that's the Statue of Liberty!" the RTO objected and panicked for a moment. "And this is war, son. Do it." She replied to him, silencing his concern as he reluctantly brought the radio telephone up and began to call it in.
"Devil 1-1 this is Eagle-6, code Olympus, I repeat, code Olympus. Weapons free, I repeat weapons free. Copy that, ETA 10 minutes over and out. Colonel Foster, they're on the way." The RTO stated defeatedly with a long sigh, when she looked at him she had a glimmer of sympathy in her eyes as she nodded to him before asking him for a favor. "Good now get Barnes on the horn for me."
As such, the RTO follow suite and dialed up the frequency of Barnes and his G-Team who were accompanied by members of SEAL Team 2 were gearing up with their rebreather gears, swimsuits, harnesses, M4A1s with various attachments, all of them were equipped with appropriate winter white gear. Barnes sat on the SDV as the minisub carried them closer to Liberty Island.
"Barnes, you read me? What's your ETA?" Foster's voice crackled through the coms as the breathing apparatus allowed them to reply to her albeit in a rather muffled manner. "Affirmative Colonel, we're less than 2 mikes out over."; "Barnes listen carefully, I've just ordered an airstrike on the objective. You have T-minus 10 mikes to retake Liberty Island or else we'll be kissing the Statue and your ass goodbye."
Barnes himself was in shock upon hearing this, he didn't blow up like others would, "Say that again over, you're sending us into the BBQ to prevent it from happening in the first place?" He asked sounding profused, "That's an affirmative. It's either a Statue and a few civilian casualties plus my resignation of command, or a couple of hundred million dead civilians. You know what to do Barnes, don't let me down." Barnes sighed out in despair knowing that there was no way he could object to her decisions, he opted to continue with the SEALs and perhaps with a bit of luck he might just save the day.
To the northside of the Island, AH-64E Apache Guardians were hitting the entrenched enemies on both Liberty and Governor's Island. They hung back, hovering over the water using TADS and Hellfire missiles along with their Longbow radars to identify the most dangerous threats, which were enemy BTRs and BMPs along with ZU-23 guns that can threaten the Chinooks and Black Hawks.
Each missile flew off the rails, flying towards their targets and slam on the top side of vehicles and turrets, turrets were seen flying off the charred and burned husks of destroyed vehicles. Once the missiles were expended, they closed in with their Hydra rockets and 30mm chain guns strafing the enemy defensive positions. Once it was done, the gunships pulled out, leaving the battlefield a charred and burned landscape with fallen trees, twisted and mangled vehicle scraps, crumbled buildings and craters.
"Yeah get sum! Get sum! WOOO!" The Rangers cheered enthusiastically seeing the enemy being pounded to bits by their gunships, the closer their Chinooks got the louder the secondary explosions got to the point that they too felt the impact and vibration went through the passenger cabin. Eventually their Chinooks circled around to the other end of Liberty Island, where there was open ground to disembark troops and while the enemies were reeling, the Chinook hovered in place allowing the Rangers and Airborne Infantry to quickly disembark.
The platoon of Rangers and Airborne quickly jumped off the ramp while some enemy fighters were opening fire upon them, Jason narrowly dodged a bullet, only for one of his men to get hit in the torso. "Man down!" He screamed out, their disembark was very much killzone for the enemy, the Chinook was in a vulnerable position with no terrain cover. True enough, the enemies began to launch RPGs at the CH-47 while the gunners were struggling to suppress enemy fighters from bringing the bird down.
"Shit whoever came up with this idea probably got shit for brains." Nicolas cursed under his breath as he crawled on his stomach towards the safety of some rubble with other Rangers setting up a defilade position. "Something tells me we're just baits." Said Jason as he crawled on his stomach towards Williams, as he did so, however, an RPG struck the CH-47 as the helo began to fly away, "We're hit! We're hit! I lost hydraulic, engine losing power, we're going down hard! Bachelor 2-2 is going down, I repeat Bachelor 2-2 is going down!" the helo began to careen over as it flew over Liberty Island making its circle around before crashing into the ground.
"Oh shit! We lost a Chinook, I repeat lost a Chinook, Jesus Christ it's still burning." Williams cried out as his Rangers kept pouring their fire on the enemies while Williams raced towards the wreckage. "Eagle-6, this is Anvil Actual, we got a Chinook down, pilots are wounded, crew chief and gunner are KIAs. Attempting to move them to a safe area now over."; "Roger that Anvil Actual, be advised you must maintain enemy focus fixed firmly on you. Do not let up. We have a SEAL team moving in to close the lid on them."; "Affirmative Eagle-6. Be advised, we may not have the space for CASEVAC, may need the barges from Brooklyn to help."
As Williams began to drag the unconscious and bloodied pilot out of the burning wreck of the Chinook, his fellow Rangers and Airborne of the 101st continued to fan out to secure a triage area for their wounded. "Come on Nic! That thing is gonna blow!" Jason shouted to Nick as he attempted to warn the Ranger. Indeed the wreck of the Chinook still had burning engine remains with the fuel remaining inside was help lighting the flame further and further. As Nicolas and his Rangers removed the Co-pilot and ran as fast as they could, the Chinook exploded violently with whatever that's left now a charred husk between the GDI/US troops and their enemies.
"Shit that was too close, too close for comfort! Anybody here got a fucking idea when are the SEALs going to whoopass?" Jason snark snidely as he checked for pulses and heartbeats of the pilots. "I hope they're not freezing their balls waiting for some Admiral's standby order to expire." Said his Williams as he trained the sight of his M4A1 on one of the RPG gunner running around at the base of the Statue.
In their dire straits, the Rangers and Airborne Infantry became the very thing the plan wanted them to be, the bait to lure attention away from the SEALs. Their tenacity and determination to fight kept the enemy fighters from noticing the SEALs slowly coming up behind them. The SEALs and G-Team were equipped with MP5SD5s and grenades, flashbang, tear gas for close quarter engagements.
"G-Team, on me we're going for the missile launcher. The SEALs are going for the hostages and secure the Statue." Barnes signaled for his teammates to follow him, as they began to fight their way towards the ballistic missile. The SEALs around them quickly fan out into Fireteam and engage the enemy entrenched in and around the Statue and began to push their way forward, slamming the proverbial lid on the enemies as intended. "Well well, look who it is, the SEALs finally come in to save our Army asses. Where have you frogmen been? Shopping in Paris?" Nicolas sarcastically snarked with a relieved grin on his beardy face as the SEALs and G-Team assault the enemy position.
As the SEALs pushed their way into the Statue of Liberty, they first tossed in flashbang, to stun the enemies before storming in with their MP5SDs double tapping the tangos that were stunted. They secured the hostages in clockwork manner and tied up the hands of the hostages before move them out one at a time, tossing them from one SEAL to another. Two more SEALs ran up the Statue to conduct a clean sweep of the Statue while Barnes and his G-Team made a mad dash towards the Iskander missile.
G-Team and their SEALs escorts fixed, flanked and finished the defenders with ease as the enemies had already expended a good portion of their ammo on the Rangers and Airborne Infantry. "Martinez, disarm the damn thing!" Barnes ordered his teammate who quickly ran towards the instrument panel and removed the cover panel to see what he could do. "Okay, working on it now, damn Russian junk and their redundancy." Martinez grumbled as he held up a field computer in his hand and siff through the security authentication protocols.
"Martinez, ETA is T-minus 2 minutes, better hussle up already or we're gonna be BBQ!" Barnes hastened his teammate who struggled to work through the Russian security protocols, struggling to read Cyrillic alphabets. "Soldier what the hell is going on here? I thought you were supposed to bus the civies out of here?" Barnes called out to Jason and Williams on the coms with the two struggling to work with their own wounded. "Yeah well we would if it weren't for the asshole with an RPG. We gotta wait for the ferry to evac the civies from the island." Jason replied with an annoyed grumble as he vaulted over some rubble and sprinted with his Airborne infantry towards the Statue of Liberty before pushing up to the top.
Once they were at the very top of the Statue, Jason and the Airborne Infantry popped green flares and waved them up in the air to notify the island has been retaken. "Martinez?" This time Barnes received a confirmation from his teammate who was busy working on the missile, after sifting through the numerous possible disarm codes and entered the correct one, the Iskander missile lowered down into its armored casket and put into standby mode. "It's a good day to die, but it ain't today." Martinez remarked with a relieved laugh.
By the Brooklyn Battery Park, Col. Foster was observing with her binoculars when she saw the Iskander missile disarmed and the green flares burning on the top of the Statue of Liberty. She felt a euphoria of relief and was quick to call her RTO, "I see green smoke! Tell them to abort damn it!"; "This is Eagle-6 abort! Abort!" With only seconds to spare, the message was relayed to the F-15Es conducting the strike, the pilots made a flyby over the Statue of Liberty, their payloads still intact as the situation was resolved. "Good work Barnes…"
