Upon discussion with some of you I've made the decision to add a crewman to the Scorpions, a gunner, and make the MG gunner in the front the commander with a cupola he sits inside of while the dedicated gunner sits beside the driver. I'm also up-gunning them to a 105mm gun. This is canon as some Scorpion variants had a 105mm, so I'll be using that from now on.

The Warthogs I will be giving their own makeover. I will have the cab of the gun hogs extend back to the rear, encompassing the gunner with a more enclosed turret for them. This makes sense as I can now have the users store stuff in this area, and even evac casualties.

I'm sort of making these things up as I get feedback, so if you have any issues or suggestions with these adjustments let me know and I'll get back to you on it.

Chapter 3

Location: Planet Dyonisis, Delta Xi System

Date: January 22, 2524

Time: 0745 Zulu

The town was taken with relatively little effort. This was surprising considering the type of fighters that the UNSC Marines had been expecting to encounter. But upon further inspection there hadn't been all that many to start with at all. According to the townspeople who had made up the vast majority of the twenty or so defenders the real Insurrectionist fanatics had only had a small group of a dozen thugs to keep them in line while the rest of them hadn't yet attempted to counter-attack from their hideout near the dam.

Most importantly no Marines had been killed or wounded in the assault. A few had been hit, but their armor had dealt quite easily with the bullets and shotgun pellets of the mostly civilian grade weapons. Captain Lynch had interrogated a few and was about to report to Lieutenant McCoy on his findings and conclusions. She herself was with two of her squads at the road into town from the dam that they knew they'd have to traverse in order to secure that ONI objective, which was more important it seemed than wiping out the Vengeance Brigade.

"Lieutenant McCoy," their ONI captain called on the radio, "Looks like our agents might still be alive. The Vengeance Brigade has them held as hostages. Doesn't look like they know who they are, to them they're just human shields from airstrikes."

"Roger that Lynch," she responded as she looked through her binoculars up the road that they'd have to go, "Warlord, Anvil-6."

"Send it Anvil-6," the gunship's pilot responded.

"Warlord be advised, ONI reports that it has two agents on the ground at Objective Zulu. They are currently hostages."

"Roger that Anvil-6," their air support responded calmly as McCoy turned her attention fully towards their next objectives.

"Warlord, any change in hostiles at Objective Yankee?" she asked.

"That's a negative Anvil-6, no change in hostile strength. But hostiles are now on a much more alert posture. They've got their technical hidden in the barn, and five foot mobiles are taking cover in and around the main house."

"Copy Warlord," McCoy said, relieved that their first objective would be a piece of cake, "And what sort of activity do you see at Objective Zulu?"

"Wait one…" the pilot responded, obviously panning his cameras over to take a more detailed look, "Anvil-6 those Innies have positioned a tank outside the main wall, looks like it's in an ambush position with four technicals and thirty infantry in position all along the road."

"Oh those dumb fuckers," McCoy chuckled, knowing that those Innies were in perfect position for their Vulture to wipe them out without the risk of collateral damage to the dam.

"Warlord also has eyes on twenty foot mobiles and six technicals on the dam itself, looks like they're arrayed towards town. Break, break, break, one Cougar, repeat one Cougar making its way to the center of the dam, they're aiming into town."

Oh come on! Lieutenant McCoy growled to herself. And then she heard the firing of the autocannons of the Infantry Fighting Vehicle sounding out. She could see the tracers lancing out over the trees in front of her and then impact somewhere in the bay. She knew very well how dangerous this vehicle could become, so she knew to make some effort to take it out.

"Warlord can you take it out with guns?" McCoy questioned, hoping the answer was a yes.

"That's an affirm Anvil-6. Gun run coming on your command."

"Fire at will Warlord, take 'em down. Once the dam is clear you have full weapons free on any hostiles outside the compound at Objective Zulu."

"Roger Anvil-6, CAS inbound."

As the Vulture responded another volley of fire from the dam came flying at the Marines in town, some of it was from the forty-millimeter autocannons on the Cougar yet others were from the fifty calibers on the technicals. The snaps of the rounds passing overhead was enough to cause the Marines to duck tighter to their pieces of cover as the larger cannon rounds impacted into a warehouse, exploding on the wooden walls and shattered much of the building. Then the whistling sound of a mortar shell came screaming to their ears.

"Incoming!" several Marines yelled out at the familiar noise.

"Spread out! Spread out!" their squad leaders all began yelling as the first round impacted into a stand of trees outside a house to McCoy's immediate right.

But now the UNSC Vulture opened fire with the two twin-barreled cannons on its chin. Short bursts from each turret sent streams of red tracers arching into the Insurrectionists on the dam. The rounds did their job, as there was a series of short popping explosions and thick black smoke rose from the dam as the Innies realized they were getting ripped to shreds. The mortar strike was temporarily halted as the Vulture set about wiping out what Insurrectionists it could lay its sights upon.

She'd seen these gunships in action once before, and had to secure the area of their strikes. Not even fully armored Elephants were able to really hold up to their firepower, and had seen entire tanks with their turrets in pieces on the side of the road thanks to an airstrike from a Vulture. So she could imagine what those lightly armored technicals on the dam's road would end up looking like. The black smoke that was rising into the air was a good sign of what she liked to see as a missile now lanced into the trees out of sight as the Vulture now ripped into the road-side ambush the Vengeance Brigade had set out for them. A flash from the very tip an orange geyser of flame from the Scorpion in the trees confirmed that the greatest danger to the UNSC Marines had been dealt with as rockets and more gun runs began pounding into the enemy positions. Dust and yellow flashes of their impacts signaled the continued terror their air support was inflicting upon the Innies.

"Oh fuck yeah," her platoon sergeant laughed, "Warlord's fucking their shit up!"

"Let's hope they leave some for us," a Marine chuckled next to the Warthog.

"Anvil-6, Warlord, hostiles destroyed on the dam and on the road. The route is clear."

"Roger Warlord, Anvil will move on Objective Yankee once friendly forces arrive to secure the town," McCoy responded, "How long can you remain on station?"

"Warlord has thirty minutes on station. ETA on friendly reinforcements?"

"Friendly reinforcements are oscar mike, ETA twenty minutes," McCoy called out, debating the wisdom of pushing forward and leaving a single squad to hold the town and watch the prisoners that they had taken.

"Lieutenant I'd recommend we proceed on mission," Captain Lynch called out, "The longer we wait, the higher the chance that the enemy will be able to fortify and the greater the chance our people will be executed."

"I agree," she responded, "Third squad, you're on rear guard, hold the village until friendly forces arrive and join the rest of the platoon. First and second squads will move on Objective Zulu. I want one fireteam from second squad to accompany Captain Lynch to Objective Yankee."

"Yes ma'am," her second squad sergeant responded, "Captain I'll give you a Hog and Fireteam Bravo."

"Okay, Tiger, you're lead while one and two follow, keep your spacing, watch for roadside IED's."

"Roger Anvil-6," one of the tank commanders responded, calling over to his counterpart in the second Scorpion behind him.

Both Scorpions rolled forward, with the infantry and Warthogs right behind them. Each vehicle had an almost orange hue to it now that the sun was rising into the sky. The snow had stopped falling, and the clouds were beginning to break up, leaving only the bitter cold and some gusty wind. The Marine convoy was kept to a quick walk, with the Scorpion tank commanders on their guns, safely tucked behind the enclosed boxy turrets of titanium and ballistic glass.

They were quickly enclosed within the tight woods on all sides, keenly aware that the enemy was probably waiting for them. The road swerved and climbed, hugging the slope where it was cut into the valley walls. The power lines were off to their left, with ice crystalized on the lines and the arms of the metal pylons. Smoke and fire from the destroyed vehicles was now clearly visible off to the right through the trees as they came closer to their area. Lieutenant McCoy heard the sound of a single Warthog zip off to the right as they passed a dirt side-road to the ONI listening station further away. She took a peak and saw that the Warthog had two Marines sitting on the tailgate on the back of the Hog and she assumed Lynch was sitting within the passenger seat.

Her command vehicle was right in the middle of the convoy of Warthogs. With three of the gun hogs up front behind the Scorpions and both of the anti-armor rocket hogs behind her command hog with their corpsmen still in their medical hog, so far unused. So she herself was safe, although in the heat of battle you are never safe. This was something all Marines knew all too well. And as they passed the burning wreckage of the Innies' attempted ambush to their left they knew things were about to get really unsafe.

"Contact front!" she heard someone yell immediately before a roar of weapons fire erupted in front of them.

Each of the Marines on foot ducked to the right or hit the dirt, and opened fire. McCoy could see that there was a heavy machine gun firing on their lead tank, the red tracers ricocheting off the armor plating on the main battle tank. There were also several innies up on the buildings and in the compound firing at them with assault rifles. Their fire was wildly ineffective, and the tanks ground forward, staggering themselves so both vehicles could see and shoot at the compound.

"Move forward Tiger, provide suppressing fire," McCoy ordered, and then turned to her Marine infantry, "Move forward, first squad right, second squad left!"

The innies didn't have much of a chance. There was just so much firepower coming down on top of them they couldn't really fight back. The Marines had come with the big stick in the form of the twin tanks grinding forward with Marines darting left and right with their armored Warthogs providing cover and suppressing fire that literally tore down sections of the walls where loop holes had been cut out for the Innies to shoot from in their defense. Then things got even tougher for the rebels as the smoke canisters on the lead Scorpion let out an almighty bang, letting loose twelve of the highly effective white smoke canisters. A thick veil of the pungent smelling gas soon cloaked the area, only broken up by the red tracers going back and forth which illuminated the shapes of the trees, the vehicles, and the Marines advancing forward.

By now the Marines were barely twenty meters away from the barbed wire barrier in front of the brick wall of the compound. The security booth in the front gate had been utterly eviscerated thanks to the fifty caliber fire from each of the vehicles and now McCoy knew she'd have to call for them fully dismount to finish their assault.

"All Hogs, hard dismount, let's clear 'em out," she ordered loudly, popping the door of her command vehicle and scrambled out alongside her first sergeant.

She ran forward, hunched over to avoid fire and got right in behind the leading tank and peaked her rifle out to the right-hand side of the rear of the Scorpion. She saw first squad off to her right, stacking up along the razor wire as they waited for the tanks to roll on through. Of course she only saw them through the tags on her Blue Force Tracker, and her thermals weren't working all that well thanks to the masking smoke.

"Tiger halt here," she said in her radio, "All squads get some frags into the compound."

Blue winks acknowledged her orders as the first waves of fragmentation grenades went right over the walls. McCoy didn't hear them hit the ground, but she did hear them go off with the frequency of firecrackers. The Marines didn't hear any of the innies yell out as their weapons were dropped into their midst, perhaps they'd killed all of those who'd been shooting at them.

"Alright, all units forward!" she ordered, and as soon she said that her two escorting tanks lurched forward, plowing out of the smoke cloud and into the light of day once more.

Their co-axial machine guns sprayed away at several targets that popped out of cover or were hiding in the windows of the building right across the parking lot that connected to the garage to the Marines' right. They were so absorbed with the sight of these tanks that the appearance of the Marine infantry sprinting across the open ground to both sides of the compound surprised them. Lieutenant McCoy had chosen to go towards the left-hand side of the compound, where the two power distribution buildings were located.

She found herself at the hesco barriers within the parking lot at the base of the all-metal guard tower. Her platoon sergeant was right next to her, aiming up at the tower where he seemed to think someone was still alive.

"Eltee, we've got at least one of those fuckers up there," he growled, his experience telling him that there were more than likely hostiles just ducking in cover up there.

"Let's clear it out," she nodded, and led the way around the barriers to the entrance in the back as she saw one of second squad's fireteams clearing out the first of the two buildings.

She looked up towards the back of the tower and immediately saw her sergeant was dead-on in his statement. An innie in all-black with a red balaclava with a SAW was staring with his weapons aimed right towards her and fired. The snap of the bullets in so close caused her ears to start ringing. But she never remembered ducking back into cover. Instead her sergeant had yanked back on the hood poking out of her collar and threw her against the hesco barrier.

"Yeah," she said loudly as the firing continued, "One's up there alright."

"Not for long," her sergeant responded with a grin, holding a frag in his left hand.

He tapped the button, and waited for a count of two seconds before lobbing it up into the tower. The grenade exploded before it hit the ground. And with that McCoy knew he'd cleared that tower completely. So she patted him on the shoulder as a signal of a job well-done and made her way to the second building that had just been cleared.

"Friendlies coming in!" she called out as both of them entered and saw second squad's leader aiming his rifle down a spiral stairwell into the lower sections.

"Eltee," Sergeant Zhou responded with a quick salute without changing his posture, "At least four of them took off down the stairs, we got two in that first building and three more on the roof."

"Their leader and the hostages probably down this way, let's get moving and find that bitch and those ONI pukes," she called out.

"Roger that."

The now focused two fireteams of second squad now began descending the staircase, careful of the ambush they knew was probably waiting on them. The stairwell was an all-concrete setup, with plenty of concealment from the innies waiting in the floor below them. The lead Marines got to within sight of the ground floor below them and that's when everything went wrong.

A single heavy machine gun opened up on them from a fortified barrier in the main room it was situated within along with several rifles. A single ricochet from a fifty caliber round slammed right into the side of the Marine in front of McCoy, sending a puff of blood onto the wall to their right. The wounded man collapsed backwards, grasping at the wound gasping and yelling in absolute shock.

"Oh Jes-fuck! Fuck!" were the only words he could get out as the other Marines scrambled back out of the way as the leading Marines scrambled backwards as a grenade bounced against the wall next to them.

"Grenade!" the first of them yelled as he grasped the object and tossed it back into the room half a second before it exploded in the doorway, sending shrapnel back at him, impacting armor and several unprotected spots on his right forearm.

The Marines scrambled to get back as the second man tossed his grenade into the room as he backed away before he was hit by a fragment of a five-five six round impacting his calf. The Insurrectionists had set up this ambush perfectly, although their timing could have been better and the grenade they'd thrown could have been thrown a bit better.

"Corpsman!" McCoy yelled into her radio, signaling for one of their Corpsmen to get to her position now.

At that moment the grenade the Marine had thrown exploded, giving them an opportunity to back out of that stairwell and consolidate their wounded. McCoy managed to drag the Marine who'd been hit in the side up the stairwell along with the help of another member of second squad. The Corpsman was waiting at the top of stairwell and immediately got to work as the other two wounded Marines scrambled up the stairs and collapsed against the wall as the others aimed their rifles down the stairs in case the innies came up after them.

"Well we're not going that way," McCoy said, kicking herself for not knowing better than going down into that kill-zone.

"There's more than one way to get down there," one of the Marines suggested, "I saw a stairwell going down the retaining wall outside. We might get in behind them."

"Alright," she nodded, "Can you two hold here?"

She was asking the two slightly wounded Marines to hold the stairwell, confident that they could. Their response was classically Marine. Both smiled and flipped their aqua green displays over their right eyes and stood up and saluted.

"Hell yeah ma'am," the one with the leg injury responded, grasping his rifle tightly.

"Let's move," she ordered, and then remembered that she really only had less than two-thirds of her platoon engaged here. She looked at third squad's position, and saw that their reinforcements were just approaching the gas station where they'd left their transport hogs. That was a relief to her, and she also saw that Captain Lynch's little section derived one of second squad's fireteams had seemingly achieved its objective.

"Captain Lynch, what's your status?" she called out.

"Objective secured, preparing demolition," the man replied promptly.

"ETA?"

"Two minutes," came the reply.

It was honestly better than she'd expected, so she'd have the balance of her platoon here within at least ten minutes. So she returned to the task at hand and moved to her wounded man and the Corpsman tending to him.

"How is he?"

"It's bad eltee," the Corpsman replied, as he worked on getting the biofoam into the man's abdominal cavity.

"He doesn't know shit ma'am," the wounded Marine chuckled, his eyes a glazed over mask thanks to the morphine coursing through his system, "I'll be with ya in a minute."

"We'll be waiting on ya Marine," she said, passing his assault rifle with attached grenade launcher to his right hand, which grasped it tightly.

She left the room and bounded over to the steel stairs and went straight down them to behind the five remaining Marines who were stacked up at a metal door that was tucked into a corner next to the railing that prevented workers from falling into the torrent of the water powering the generators. It had a sign on it that said 'Pull' so kicking the damned thing in was not an option. But the squad had a solution. They'd placed a breaching charge right in the middle of the door and were preparing to detonate.

"Fire in the, fire in the hole, fire in the hole!" the squad leader called out, triggering the explosives as she got to the end of the line of Marines.

On instinct both she and her platoon sergeant ducked against the wall, shielding their faces from the small but powerful explosive. And they needed to, as the explosion sent the door flying into the room, creating a devastating concussion that the innies inside, arrayed towards the stairwell, were quickly dazed by. The Marines then tossed in a pair of flash bang grenades, remembering they had hostages somewhere in the facility.

The two bangs effectively disabled the enemy within, and the Marines now streamed into the room. Under normal circumstances they gave the innies the chance to surrender. But not here, not after what had happened to three of their own. They stormed into the room, weapons raised, and fired with complete impunity into the eight Insurrectionists that they saw. McCoy walked in time to see the final black-clothed rebel get a three round burst in the back as he crawled towards a door to the left.

"Clear!" several of the Marines called out, kicking at the lifeless bodies, noting with disdain that several were wearing standard UNSC gear, but painted over in black with some red stripes and symbols of their unit and the larger movement's unmistakable closed fist.

"There can't be that many more," McCoy noted to herself, "Clear the rest of the facility, watch for booby traps and stragglers."

"Yes ma'am," Sergeant Zhou responded, moving to the door that one of the Marines had opened and he and two others began moving into the hallway it branched into.

"There's another stairwell here," one of the other Marines said as the squad leader yanked him away from it.

"Let's not tempt fate with that trick again," McCoy grimly said, "Let's find another way down and then a way across."

She led the way out of the building and looked down and across to see movement in one of the windows in the power generator station where water was pouring from. She recognized the face of the woman immediately, even without the HUD picking her out and highlighting her as an HVT.

"There!" she yelled, noting two other hostiles flanking her in the window and pulled her rifle to her shoulder and opened fire as the other three Marines behind her came out onto the concrete deck behind her.

Her shots shattered the glass, causing all of the innies inside to duck down and against the wall and fired back. But the lone PFC with them let loose with a long volley from his SAW that put the innies on notice. There was a walkway across the raging river just to their left that would give them a clear shot to pursue their foes in their little power station. Seeing this off to her right McCoy knew she had to go after that Insurrectionist leader, the one called "The Amazon."

"Cover us private!" McCoy ordered, moving to the right, leading the charge towards the opposite bank.

"Roger eltee!" he responded, laying down underneath the metal railings and continued firing with his weapon propped up its bipod.

The clanging and shaking of the rusty walkway gave McCoy and the other Marines considerable cause to slow down, lest the whole thing collapse underneath them. But a few shots coming from in front of them from within the building got them back into a sprint. Out here in the open they couldn't stop and fire, training from day one told them never stop and fire back if you're in the open. You have to keep moving. Someone in cover will always get the better of someone in the open in a shootout. But this didn't stop the Marines from shooting back while running.

McCoy was the first to reach the concrete deck and saw to her left the red beret of none other than Rosa de Villenueva in a black set of fatigues with military grade armor painted red. Then she saw the pistol the woman had pointed at McCoy and hesitated when she saw the flash. There was no mistaking the impact of the forty-five hitting her right in the chest plate, the strongest piece of armor she had. But its transfer of energy into her body was so immense that she was spun around and stumbled as her legs gave out beneath her and the Lieutenant crumpled to her hands and knees. McCoy gasped for air, fear now taking hold as she rolled onto her back desperately feeling her chest plate, trying to feel for the tell-tale signs of blood from the wound her instincts were sure was there.

The two Marines that had been behind her knew she'd been hit, and had stopped to provide cover fire, alerting the Corpsmen that their CO was hit. As they did that the innies retreated, seeing an opportunity to escape while the Marines predictably rallied around their presumed-to-be-wounded comrade. With this reprieve both of them grabbed a firm hold of McCoy before she could get a word out and dragged her over against a row of air conditioners a few meters away from the door.

"Eltee! You okay?"

"I'm alright, I think," she managed to gasp out.

"Damn," she heard the second squad's sergeant chuckle, "You're tougher than you look."

"That fucking bitch just shot me!" McCoy yelled, plucking the remnants of the forty-five slug from the dent in her armor before discarding it with disdain.

"Well let's get her then," she heard her platoon sergeant chuckle as he rushed towards the door with her and Zhou behind him, aiming into the windows.

"Clear," Zhou whispered before turning to his SAW gunner still up behind them, "Gager, get down here."

McCoy didn't want to wait, she moved to the door and pulled it open, sweeping the walls below the windows before moving into the large room. There was a single large turbine here that was situated right in the center of the room with a catwalk going around it to the floor above where the water pipes fed its rotating movements. Several control consoles were on as the old device functioned as if nothing was out of the ordinary. But a door off to the left was open, leading to a branching hall where the three innies they had seen ran off towards.

"On me," McCoy commanded, gritting her teeth in anticipation of what they were going to find waiting past that door.

She carefully went to the wall, and peeked around, seeing nothing but a curving hall that went upwards at a slight slope. Several lights were flickering on the ceiling as they fought for life but nothing dangerous was waiting for them. The two Marines went on, careful with each step so as not to make too much noise. Their rifles were aimed right down the hallway, ready to pop anyone that came out.

They got to the bend in the hall, and as they got there they saw a door open up and a man with an old black helmet and all-black set of fatigues aimed out at them. But his fire from his assault rifle missed, while theirs did not. Both the Lieutenant and the First Sergeant landed three or four good shots that caused the terrorist to crumple into the hallway, his blood running down the smooth concrete slope like a river. The gunshots were still echoes in the long concrete tube as they aimed back at several other doors that were shut in this part of the corridor.

Both of them rushed to the open door, hearing something inside. McCoy remembered that there had been ONI personnel here that had been taken hostage and this individual may have been guarding them.

"UNSC, speak to me now!" the Marine officer called out with her NCO aiming forward, in case the innies had any more surprises waiting for them.

There was a grunting noise inside as someone was trying to get their attention. As she was about to enter the room Sergeant Zhou and his man ran up behind them, rushing to the sound of the guns. She nodded to them and pointed to her ear and then into the room with a hand around her neck to signal that the hostages were potentially inside. With the acknowledgment from the others she went in with rifle at the ready. What she found was probably a small storage room with a few crates and boxes with a few shelves against the walls. A pair of metal folding chairs was in the center of the room, but only one was occupied.

In it was a single man, his face bloodied and one eye swollen shut wearing civilian clothes with his hands tied behind his back and his ankles cuffed to the legs of the chair. He sighed heavily at the entrance of the three Marines. But he couldn't say anything thanks to a black rag tied between his teeth. But one of the Marines rectified that quickly and he immediately explained why the other chair was empty.

"Three of them, they came and took Anita as a hostage. They've got a Falcon hidden around here somewhere. One of them is Villenueva," he explained as Sergeant Zhou cut the ziptied behind his back.

"They know we won't shoot down an aircraft with a hostage aboard," McCoy stated plainly, "We've got to move now! Zhou, you and your man stay with him until Lynch gets here. Lynch, McCoy, come in."

"I know Lieutenant, I know, I'm coming over the dam now with your fireteam. I've got eyes on that Falcon now. Looks like a couple innies are prepping for takeoff," the ONI Captain said hurriedly.

"We're heading up there now, can you get to that garage before us?" McCoy said as she ran full tilt out of the room and up the corridor with her platoon sergeant right on her tail.

"I don't know, we'll have to dismount to get down there, the road's blocked by a destroyed technical."

Caution was thrown to the wind by now as the two Marines stormed forward, weapons raised but if someone jumped out at them they weren't likely to get off a very good first shot. So McCoy grabbed a flash bang grenade from off her vest and pulled the pin, ready to throw it at a moment's notice. They could hear the yelling up ahead by now and saw an open door with a single innie kneeling down behind the door, his attention focused back towards the clearly visible Falcon helicopter instead of the hallway. So McCoy took her flash bang and released the trigger, and tossed it, as best she could. The device bounced right in front of the door, getting the terrorist's attention and his eyes and rifle immediately went to track the object that had bounced right by him and rolled up against a crate behind the Falcon. There it detonated just as both Marines averted their eyes.

The device did the trick, as everyone inside was stunned and several screams of confusion sounded out. They immediately fired, hitting the innie in the door who'd stood up with his hands to his eyes as he tried recovering. Seven or eight rounds impacted him right in the chest and he fell forward against the doorway, rolling away into the hall, half in the garage and half in the hall. The two Marines stormed inside, her sergeant picking off two more innies who'd tried grabbing for weapons resting on a table against the wall. She herself picked off another insurrectionist with a well-placed headshot that killed him instantly. She then took notice of a brunette woman in civilian clothes with her hands tied behind her back and a similar gag to the one her ONI partner had on. She was lying on the ground, right next to the man that McCoy had just killed.

Then she saw their primary target, Rosa de Villenueva, and she hadn't been as stunned as the other innies. McCoy didn't have time to explain it but the woman must have had her back turned or had covered her ears. Because she suddenly appeared, right behind her platoon sergeant with a revolver drawn. From point-blank range she fired, hitting the armored plates on his back, sending the man stumbling forward as the first three rounds hit to no lethal effect. But the last two hit lower, penetrating the Kevlar there.

McCoy didn't say a word, she just aimed and pulled the trigger, but of all the times for her to run her clip dry now was the worst of times. So she reached down to her holster and drew her Magnum and aimed up but the momentary hesitation of drawing the weapon gave Villenueva enough time to duck back into a room and McCoy gave chase immediately. She ignored the noise her boots made as she came to the door and was shocked to see a silver machete come swinging down on top of her.

The Marine spun away, but not quick enough as her Magnum was knocked from her hands and the blade glanced off of her Kevlar gloves. But it was only the same pain as getting hit in the hands with a textbook and the blade didn't cut through. However there wasn't time to even check, as she had to jump backwards as the machete came slicing for her neck with the next move as Villenueva pressed her attack yelling out with each attempt. The first blow missed and then the woman tried again with another backhanded slice that McCoy ducked to avoid and grabbed the other woman in a headlock and put her right leg behind her and used her full body-weight in a classic Marine take-down. But Villenueva was quick on the draw, and before McCoy was solidly on top she was on her knees and was trying to get up and throw off the Marine officer.

McCoy was on the woman's back, and grabbed a hold of her machete-wielding arm and wrestled to keep it from being used. But Villenueva finally got her feet under her and pushed off, sending both women backwards uncontrollably. Behind them had been an office with a glass window going floor to ceiling with the shades down. This window was shattered instantly and the thin plastic shades crumpled and tangled around them as both of them fell and tangled amongst it, oblivious to everything but their fight for survival. McCoy was the first one to her feet, and awkwardly grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on, a wooden shelf against the wall, and yanked it down on top of her foe. She was just getting to her knees and struggled to get to her feet as not only the shelf fell upon her but the binders and boxes on it as well.

The Marine now drew her own combat knife as Villenvueva rolled away, untangling herself from the blinds of the destroyed window and assumed a fighting stance facing the Marine Lieutenant. Her beret was missing, and her long black hair was now free of the bun it had been tied in. And like the reports had said she was aggressive and attacked with an overhand slash that McCoy sidestepped. With that move she was able to catch the arm with her left arm, pin it, and with her knife held reverse blade-out she sliced open her opponent's tricep by slicing up cutting deeply before stabbing down, right into her shoulder with a quick in-and-out jab.

This only served to infuriate Villenueva, who spun around, slugging her right in the nose several times, and then brought her right left knee into McCoy's side, desperation taking hold. But McCoy took them in stride, and spun around behind Villenueva, still holding her right arm pinned and bleeding and used her right arm to loop around the woman's neck. She then kicked her right knee and pushed down, easily controlling her opponent and forced her down to the ground and maneuvered to put her knee into Villenueva's back and hold the woman down. Despite being effectively pinned Villenueva wasn't going to stop struggling and McCoy was glad to see what happened next.

"Need some help Lieutenant?"

A single boot crunched down on top of the machete, and a hand wrenched it free of Villenueva's grip and tossed it to the side. The Marine looked up to see the god visor of Captain Lynch's helmet as he slipped a ziptie cuff around the woman's wrist and grabbed a tight hold as he did the same to the other arm after he'd placed is own much heavier body weight on top of the smaller terrorist leader. In one quick move he'd secured Villenvueva who began cursing at them in Spanish despite her hopeless situation.

"About time," McCoy breathed, catching her breath as she remembered her platoon sergeant had been shot and was lying outside, "What the hell took you so long?"

"And miss the chickfight?" the man said with a chuckle.

McCoy just let her jaw drop.

"Fuckin' men…"

She rushed out into the garage to see two Marines busy trying apply first aid. The Marine Staff Sergeant's helmet was off and he was clenching his teeth and grumbling lowly as the other two worked on him.

"Corpsman's on the way ma'am," one of the two said calmly, "Looks like the Kevlar stopped most of it. He should be fine."

"How many times have you gotten shot private?" the old NCO growled.

"Not once Staff Sergeant," the man responded.

"Well until you do don't go saying I'll be fine. This shit hurts."

Several chuckles sounded out as she looked over to see her other two Marines helping the other ONI operative to her feet after cutting the binders on her wrists. So McCoy went over to them to check on this situation as well.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the woman grumbled, "little sore but it could be worse. Nice job lieutenant, I'll be putting you and your man over there up for a commendation."

"With respect ma'am," Harvey called out from his spot, "I'm an NCO. Call me by my rank."

"We know, we know, you're not an officer. You work for a living," McCoy said with a genuine smile on her face as she now checked on the rest of her platoon.

"Medivac en route eltee," Zhou called out to her over the radio.

"Very well."

First squad wasn't showing anyone killed, but there were three men wounded, one fairly badly judging by the red blinking on the torso section on the silhouette she pulled up on her HUD. Two others were yellow, with their wounds in both legs. How that had happened she'd find out later, but all that mattered was that there weren't any more gunshots firing right now. And that meant that they'd done it. With that McCoy could call out her favorite radio signal.

"All stations this net, index, all objectives secure, mission complete, mission complete, mission complete."

Okay, that was a lot of fun so I hope you guys liked it. Whether or not you liked it let me know what you guys think, so I can improve. This story is the most fun to write out of all the one's I write just because of how fast paced and action packed it is. Needless to say I can't wait to hear what you guys think.

Next Chapter Preview: The infantry's had its fun, time for a look at the inside of a tank.