AN: Small warning, widespread devastation is a prevalent part of this chapter and I don't know if the damage as portrayed is accurate to this sort of thing. Also, a big rating spike here also this chapter isn't focused heavily on combat.

Clarisse wanted to scream when the three Vulture-Cs dropped their ordnance, six 250-kilogram bombs apiece were ejected from each UCAV. The ground erupted as one of the bombs found a storage tank for the gas station, a fireball shoot nearly a thousand feet into the air. Two more punched into the city natural gas line and the street exploded for at least a block and a half as natural gas ignited. Most of the BP and the building across the street had been practically eviscerated by the hits.

"Hellhound, find that drone control aircraft!" she snarled angrily, that's what she knew about the Russian UCAVs, unlike American ones which were more expensive due to each having an AI, the Russian ones were controlled by an AI in a conventional fighter. Said AI tended to be more powerful due to taking in data from up to seven different UCAVs and the conventional fighter in order to make them fight effectively. It was Russia's attempt to create a Wyvern Killer and she was about to find out if it was effective or not.

The three Vulture-Cs that were turning to engage her had their engines blazing with light as they ignited their afterburners and began maneuvering towards the Wyvern, their thrust vectoring engine twisting them around. Clarisse craned her head, the HMD effortlessly tracking where her gaze was. For the first time today, she wished that her Wyvern's shoulder bays were loaded, but given the speed at which the situation had developed, they weren't.

"Got him! He's diving on us, he's diving on us, it's a Fandriver. He's got two more cyclopes with him." Hellhound replied, lovely, they had a Su-45, a variant of the Su-44 that wanted to play with them and he had two more UCAVs. Right, well, let's see him match this.

Well fuck. {Warlord, switch ECM to defensive! Hellhound, I need TALDs setup.}

(Done)

There was a brief pause before Hellhound replied. "TALDs on your trigger!"

"Ares, duck" she called over the radio and from her conformal pods, two TALDs were kicked free. There engines engaged and the onboard ECM systems began blasting out sweet electronic music that would make her fighter a bitch to locate, particularly when combined with the onboard jamming suite.

The Wyvern hammered through the air, she needed distance, dammit. "Hunter Two, I am going to extend in order to get some breathing space so I can turn the tables on these assclowns. See you in a couple of mikes."

With that, Clarisse pushed the engines into afterburners which unleashed tremendous roars, sucking down enormous qualities of air and fuel. The massive acceleration pinned her to her seat as the indicated air speed rapidly jumped into the supersonic regime, the fighter leaving a double shockwave behind her as it streamlined itself for speed, wings folding in and the tailerons folding down. In a matter of seconds she'd put literal miles between her and the point where the Drones and its controller were.

Time to turn the tables, she slammed the Wyvern through a crushing break, bringing the nose upwards as she did so. She groaned as it seemed like a Giant was now pushing down upon her chest, she had to fight for every breath, the sound of her labored breathing echoing inside her helmet as the life support system fed her a steady stream of oxygen. If she didn't have an oxygen mask on, she doubted she would be able to draw breath. Learning how brutal air combat maneuvering could be on the human body had given her a new found admiration for mortal fighter pilots, being able to plan out your moves while you were experiencing up to nine or more times your nominal weight due to g-forces. It hadn't been easy for her to become a fighter pilot due to her height and weight, but she had preserved and she had thought that she was physically fit due to her training at Camp Half Blood, then she had gone through air combat maneuvering training.

The howling scream of the engines of her fighter were absolutely deafening. But she lived it, she breathed it, she was commanding a fighter that had a literal Artificial Intelligence that was running the more complicated tasks for her and her WSO. The first thing that needed to go was that Fandriver, once gone, the Drones would revert to their onboard programming, which wasn't particularly excellent for air combat maneuvering. But it was believed by intelligence that there was a flaw in the programming of the Russian AI when it came to defending its Controller. A flaw that if it existed, she could exploit.

"Ares, Fox Three" she called as she locked up the Fandriver and fired, an AIM-120D AMRAAM was ejected from its bay and with a supersonic crack it blasted away.

An alarm sounded in her helmet. "Missiles in the air! Break right!" Hellhound said through the intercom, she could feel his apprehension and fear over this whole situation through the COFFIN link.

She slammed the Wyvern through a crushing right hand turn, again the giant's hand pressed down on her chest. She grunted with exertion, the reasoning for Fly-By-Light controls becoming all too obvious, it felt like she weighed a literal ton as Warlord screamed through the turn, disgorging flares and chaff.

"Missiles evaded!" Hellhound grunted out and she rolled the wings level and reversed the turn. On her radar display, one of the drones vanished from her display and the Fandriver seemed to stagger in midair.

It worked, yes! Clarisse thought gleefully, knowing that the drone had moved in front of the AMRAAM to protect the Fandriver, only to be blasted into a thousand little pieces and for the Fandriver to promptly dive through said cloud of shrapnel.

{Warlord, I want you to try and take over the Russian UCAVs once the Fandriver is down.} Clarisse ordered, after doing the math in her head she glanced in the direction of the Fandriver, there was a predatory growl as the AIM-9s locked on.

(Consider it done) Warlord replied.

{Thanks} Clarisse replied before snapping. "Ares, Fox Two, Fox Two!" With a single squeeze of the trigger, two missiles blasted away from her Wyvern a second apart and promptly began climbing upwards to meet the Fandriver. Then putting her Wyvern through another tight turn, this time to the left.

She took the opportunity to glance down and she muttered a brief prayer, hoping for anyone to still be alive down there.

Febe, the best healer on the Hunters of Artemis, moaned in pain as her vision began to come back into focus. What the hell? What the literal hell? She sat up and coughed, Tartarus that had hurt.

She blinked several times and her vision cleared. Dust and dirt was everywhere, more than that there was a horrible stench as if the sewers themselves had opened. She gagged, trying to breathe. Gods, this was horrible, not even the Battle of Manhattan had been this bad.

She tried to speak only to go into a coughing fit. Her ears were ringing horribly, she couldn't hear anything. What the hell had happened? Last thing she remembered before this had happened was Thalia yelling for them to get to cover behind the funeral home.

A shadow appeared out of the gloom, she pulled out her hunting knife and was about to attack whoever it was when she saw that it was Ramirez. She coughed again. "What happened?" she wheezed, it was hard to speak and hard to think. Her mouth was dry and her throat was parched. Her hands went down to her belt and she unclipped her canteen, taking a drink of moonwater before reattaching it. The liquid wasn't ambrosia or nectar, but immediately she felt revitalized.

"Air strike! Near as I can tell, the underground fuel tanks for the gas station went up and the blast caused the natural gas main to ignite and that blew the street apart!" She could barely hear Ramirez, the ringing in her ears continued unabated.

Oh no. The thought came to her mind unbidden, Sanya! They'd left her in a truck, what had it been called? An M-ATV? "We have to find Sanya first before we leave this area!" Febe said she was pretty sure that she was shouting due to barely being able to hear anything. She just wanted to get out of here.

Something in Ramirez's body language changed and she thought that he was saying something, but she couldn't tell due to the ski mask or balaclava or whatever it was hiding the lower part of his face.

She watched as Thalia got up, she too looked dazed. She was followed by Erica and Reyna. As she watched, Ramirez made a couple of quick hand signals and while she was clearly dazed and more than a little shaken, the lieutenant of the hunt nodded and then made a sharp motion with her hands.

Febe felt the air begin to swirl and rush as for a moment a gale existed where they were. The dust and dirt in the air was swept away in a matter of seconds, revealing a sort of carnage that was utterly appalling.

The street was just gone, it had caved in on itself, the sidewalks were dropping inward to the chasm that had opened in the street. It yawned open like some sort of monster with teeth made of jagged concrete. Gods, this was just simple devastation.

She had thought that the Battle of Manhattan had been bad. But this… she didn't know how this could get any worse. "SANYA!" she screamed at the top of her voice.

No response, she hoped that Sanya wasn't dead. She'd seen people die due to being burned to death. She didn't want that fate to befall Sanya, not by a long shot. She shouted her name again.

The ringing in her ears was finally beginning to dull it seemed, but it would be a miracle if my hearing was right anymore. Aw screw it, she took out her flask of nectar and took a sip. Immediately Febe could tell that her hearing was becoming much better, primarily because she could now hear the vicious crackling of hungry flames and screaming. As she looked around, she could see a full line of houses fully engulfed in fire, thick black smoke rising into the air. This was like the literal apocalypse.

She offered some to Ramirez. "Here, Nectar, I don't know if you have any on you." she said and the man took some and took a sip.

Febe looked around, everyone else was downing some Nectar and she nodded, then she noted that she was missing her helmet. Bugger, where had that thing gone? Shaking her head, she pushed that thought aside and out of her mind. At the moment, all she cared about was finding Sanya.

"Thanks," Ramirez said, handing the flask back which she pocketed, "we need to move and regroup. Then push on to the objective."

He was still thinking about the mission? What did they have left? How could they even do this? Thankfully, before she could speak and probably get herself in a load of trouble, Thalia spoke up.

"Right, the first order of business is finding anyone who's still alive. We've been in worse situations before, but as long as we work the problem we can make it out of this alive." she said and not for the first time Febe had to remind herself that there was a reason why Thalia and not her was the Lieutenant of the Hunt.

But the words that she had said made Febe remember that they had been in much worse situations than this. The late stages of the Battle of Manhattan came to mind, the Lydian Drakon, she'd nearly been eaten by the monster and Febe also knew that at least two demigods and a hunter had been swallowed by the monster before Clarisse had managed to put it down. "You're right, we have," Febe said, looking at Thalia, "Call it Lieutenant."

Thalia nodded and then working with Ramirez, they figured out a plan. Febe would look for Sanya, Erica and Reyna would try and find a path that they could use to continue advancing towards the objective (something that Ramirez had insisted upon), finally Thalia and Ramirez would search for additional survivors.

It was something that Febe hated to be alone on. But they didn't have enough people for everyone to have pairs. Which meant someone had to go it alone. "Febe, if you find Sanya, let us know." Ramirez said as he handed her a helmet.

Febe nodded. "I will, same if I find any survivors?" she asked and Ramirez nodded, then the Ranger made a quick hand signal: disperse. Febe counted herself lucky as far as hunters went, most Hunters if they didn't ask to leave for whatever reason, would usually fall in battle after around a century or so, she was a bit of an outlier, having been on the Hunt for roughly seven times that.

She eyed the gap ahead of her, it was a solid thirty or so feet. A rather effortless jump all things considered, she sprinted and came up to the edge then her legs pumped and she was flying through the air for several seconds. Then Febe hit the remains of the sidewalk on the other side of the chasm and converted her forward motion into a roll. Then she carefully began to pick her way down the street, ignoring the raw heat that was coming off in waves from burning houses.

As she trudged along the street, she could only wince at the shattered humvees and turned over JLTVs. There were a few scattered remains, it actually took Febe a moment to realize that they had been people. The natural gas explosion had ripped them apart, rendered them completely unrecognizable as having been even human originally.

The stench from ruptured sewers and intestines filled her nostrils as she ran along the edge of the gash ripped in the road. It made her want to throw up, but Febe forced the bile down as much as she could. Gods, this was horrific, why did they have to fight through this?

The roaring heat of the flames from burning houses was making her sweat as flames shot through the roofs. Febe figured that entire blocks of houses would burn due to the gas line explosion. What if there were civilians still inside these houses? A dark little voice in the back of her mind answered. They're likely already dead Febe, they probably didn't feel a thing.

If there was one thing that Febe hated, it was that dark voice that had spoken in her mind ever since her first taste of war and whenever she wound up in situations like this. How many years ago had that been? She'd honestly lost count, but if there was one thing that seemed to be true, it was that war never changes.

Febe feared that age-old adage would be proven right when she saw the M-ATV they had been riding in. The vehicle was nearly unrecognizable, the front end was completely shattered, the fluids for the vehicle were pooling on the ground. Oh Sanya, I am so sorry. She thought, seeing the smashed vehicle.

Then she heard something that caused her to tilt her head in confusion. A series of bangs followed by cursing, muffled by the cabin of the vehicle. The words used were of the sort that Febe was certain would result in Artemis turning the person who said them into a wolf for a couple of days as punishment. At least according to the old timers, the last of the original hunters who had been on the hunt before even Zoë, but Artemis had grown out of it during the Titan War and even more so during the Giant War.

Finally the door literally fell off with a loud bang. "About fucking time!" A loud crass voice snapped.

Febe jogged over just in time for a soldier to work his way out of the wrecked truck and then she heard grunting and complaining from Sanya as she carefully picked her way out of the M-ATV. The soldier helped her down. "You alright?" he asked of her once they were out of the truck.

Febe's enhanced hearing picked up Sanya's answer. "Somehow, I thought we were dead when the street exploded."

The man laughed and pounded the side of the wrecked M-ATV appreciatively. "This baby is an MRAP, they are designed to absorb blasts like that due to the shape of their hulls. Never gets any easier though."

Sanya looked down and whimpered. "Don't remind me."

The soldier started laughing like a maniac, Febe strolled up about ready to make him have trouble finding his front teeth when he said. "Don't worry, the laundry knew how scared I was the first time I was in an MRAP and the vehicle hit an IED."

Well then, there was such a thing as too much information. With that in mind, Febe just glared at him. "You two alright?" she asked, speaking up for the first time.

Sanya nodded. "A bit rattled and I am fairly sure I'll have a full body bruise, but I'll live." she replied.

The trooper nodded. "Call me Ian, I am fine by the way."

Febe took that information in stride and plowed on ahead. "Right, listen we're meeting up near the remains of the BP. We're going to be rallying whatever survivors we can find and then pushing on to an objective. It's making me wonder who the hell Raptor is."

The man, Ian, shook his head. "My guess? A member of Congress more than likely who was trying to get to some bunker somewhere. Given the codename though, it could be a member of the cabinet or even be a member of the First or Second Family."

Wait, First or Second Family? Oh Styx, you can't be serious. "You don't mean a member of the Presidential or Vice Presidential Family, right? Surely you can't be serious." Febe asked, she didn't know much about politics, well, American politics, which she found to be way too confusing. But she knew enough where it counted.

Sanya looked between her and Ian, obviously confused as the Ranger replied. "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

Aw bugger me sideways. Febe thought bitterly at that revelation. As if this day couldn't get any worse. Now they found out that they had to rescue someone who may have been fairly important to the government. Well that was just great, absolutely lovely, once today was done, she felt that she was going to sleep for like a week.

Yet, that dark voice in the back of her mind told her that this hell wouldn't be ending anytime soon. With this in mind, she led Sanya and Ian back to where they were needed.

When Thalia found Dunn and Foley, she was more than a little relieved, all she'd been finding was bodies and the remains of bodies. Some of them were nearly mangled beyond recognition as having been originally human and others were horribly charred.

Thus just seeing them moving, it took an elephant off her back. Almost everyone in Hunter Two was dead from those blasts. So it was good seeing someone who was still alive. "Sergeant" Thalia called and Foley whirled, there was something in the man's movements, they weren't anywhere near as fluid as a hunter or a demigod's. Though, she wished that the man hadn't leveled his rifle at her chest for a moment before lowering it.

"Ms. Grace," he said, lowering his rifle, "what a pleasant surprise."

Thalia had to admit that once that rifle was lowered, she started feeling a lot better. "Thanks for the warm welcome," Thalia grumbled slowly, having been a little freaked out at seeing the business end of the SCAR.

"Sorry about that, little jumpy after all hells broke loose." the Sergeant said and Thalia believed him. After the street decided to fucking explode, she figured that anyone would be on edge.

"I understand." Thalia replied, to be frank she was on edge as well. She completely understood why she had a rifle pointed at her chest. But she also knew that she was going to have nightmares where she would end up shot. It was something that to be honest, she wasn't looking forward to.

Foley nodded and then his expression changed, it darkened. "We lost Morgan when the street went up. I reckon we lost most of the platoon too."

Just hearing those words felt like a smack across the face and it made her wonder how many people had truly died when the street had exploded. Dozens easily, she couldn't imagine how Nico felt at the moment with how many people were dying. Thalia pushed those thoughts aside, they could mourn the dead later after this battle.

A small part of her mind went, if they had the chance too. Thalia absolutely hated that part of her mind. But she knew that part of her mind had formed due to her months on the run and then further reinforced by the Battle of Manhattan and the events of the Second Giant War.

But if she was right, more people had already died than in the entirety of the Second Titan and Second Giant Wars put together. Just that thought was absolutely sickening in itself, considering that thousands of demigods and mortal mercenaries had been killed in the sinking of Princess Andromeda. The fact that the death toll might already be higher…

Thalia shook her head, how did mortals do it?

"Do what?" A man asked, his nametag read 'Dunn'.

Apparently she said that outloud. "Deal with all of this." she replied.

Dunn shook his head. "We don't, Sergeant Foley and I still have nightmares about Basara despite it having occurred five years ago. Worst military tragedy in recent history for the United States, Al-Asad's forces on the brink of defeat detonated a nuclear bomb in the city. Thirty thousand servicemen perished in the blink of an eye, hundreds more died afterwards due to radiation exposure or burns, thousands more suffered life altering injuries. We both suffered a mild case of Acute Radiation Syndrome and saw buddies die because of that shit. We learn how to cope, find our triggers and learn how to deal with them. Nobody comes out of war as they were before they went in."

The words hit Thalia like a punch to the face. She remembered that event, even the Hunters had learned about it almost immediately after it had happened. But learning that Dunn had actually been there, Gods upon Olympus, she couldn't imagine what that was like. But the man's words about how nobody came out of the war as they were before they came in was also true. She forced down a memory of the Battle of Manhattan, Thalia considered herself lucky that it didn't trigger an attack. "You're right, nobody does. Gods knows how many years that I am going to have nightmares because of this day."

Dunn nodded. "That's what I figured, you got this air about you that only combat veterans have. Must be from being a Hunter or something."

Gods, he truly doesn't know. Thalia mused as she nodded in response. "It is, but it's also a fun life."

Foley cut in before Dunn could respond. "Corporal, save it for later. Grace, do you know if Ramirez is still alive?" he asked sharply.

Thalia nodded. "He is, I think he's searching for survivors near the gas station."

Foley swore. "If there's any it's a damn miracle," he said sharply looking around at the devastation, "I've seen worse, but this brings up far too many bad memories."

Thalia could understand that, she didn't like seeing train wrecks or Sherman tanks. Far too many bad memories regarding those all things considered.

But she couldn't understand why they were continuing to head towards the objective. "Sergeant, why are we still heading towards the objective despite not having anywhere near full strength anymore?" Thalia asked and for a moment, she thought that she overstepped her bounds.

Instead Foley snorted. "Because Raptor is a member of the Government, given how fancy the codename is, my guess is national level rather than state level. Plus given how fast this shit all came down upon us, for all we know, Raptor could have been the Secretary of Homeland Security yesterday and as of this evening, he or she is now POTUS."

POTUS? Who the Tartarus was… oh, oh fuck. "You mean we could be rescuing the godsdamned President of the United States?" Thalia breathed in alarm.

Foley nodded, his expression was grim and all of a sudden it all clicked. "Yep, plus well, we got to keep moving. We're only about a mile away, if we double time it, we can get there in roughly ten minutes."

Well shit, Thalia realized that as far as things went, this mission in terms of importance all of a sudden rivaled the Great Prophecies. This was something that they couldn't fail at. It was a whole lot to take in and it suddenly felt like a titan was pressing down upon her admittedly sturdy shoulders. But failure here, while it wouldn't result in the end of the world, it would probably spell doom for the United States until various European powers could intervene in the situation.

"Right, I suddenly feel like I am on a quest where if you fail the world ends." Thalia moaned and she had been on those before. But there was an urgency to this one, their goal was literally minutes away and they had who knows how many bad guys between them and their objective.

Foley snoted in response, but judging from his expression, he understood what she was getting at. Regardless, Thalia wished that they had been given this sense of urgency earlier. But she also suspected that she knew why this was, that thing about needing to know and that she wasn't fully in the loop. "Let's continue looking." Thalia said after looking around some more.

In the end, they couldn't find that many more survivors, in fact they only found three more. The platoon medic and an anti-armor team. That was it, everyone else was either blasted to pieces or so thoroughly charred beyond recognition that it wasn't even funny. As they regrouped, and found another Ranger who had been in the M-ATV that Sanya had been in, Thalia couldn't help but notice that everyone was looking rather down.

She couldn't blame them, they had been gutted. Could they honestly finish this? Thalia shuddered at the thought, they had gods only knew how many enemies and all they had was five hunters and seven rangers.

Foley stepped forwards. "Listen up," in an instant everyone's gaze snapped towards him, the Sergeant was in control of this situation, "logically speaking we should report over the battle network that our platoon is completely combat ineffective. But the other elements of Hunter Company are still at least thirty minutes out since they had to backtrack in order to cross the James River and the elements of Badger Three are at least sixty minutes out. Like it or not we're the closest, we're ten minutes out. Raptor for all we know, given how everything's gone completely to hell could be a member of the cabinet or whoever it is could be POTUS."

Thalia watched as the Rangers straightened, the grip that they maintained on their weapons tightened. Something began to kindle within their eyes, she didn't know what it was though. Upon seeing this the Sergeant continued. "So, we're the closest ones who might be able to help the President of the United States; we got Russians between us and the crash site. So what are we going to turn those Russians into?" Foley demanded.

Ramirez, son of Ares, spoke up. "Turn them into a river of blood running under our feet, sir!"

Foley nodded. "Damn right. That's what we're going to do to the Russians."

As Thalia watched the men who had been shifting nervously from foot to foot, changed. They straightened their postures and then Foley spoke once more. "We're Army Rangers, it's our job to lead the way and act upon our own accord. Hooah?"

"Hooah" The rangers chorused along with a few of the Hunters and the Sergeant looked insulted.

"I can't hear you, hooah?"

"HOOAH!" The rangers boomed in one unified voice, Thalia was surprised to have heard the term come from her own mouth.

"Damn right I am, let's move! Ramirez, I want you on point, Dunn right behind him, followed by myself," and so the order went until the Hunters were bringing up the rear. "Got our six, Grace?" he asked.

Thalia looked at the Hunters, she could tell that they wanted to be at the speartip. "I would feel better if we were leading the way." she admitted, looking at the man.

Foley put a hand on her shoulder. "It's your job to make sure that nothing comes up behind us. The team on our six is just as important as the point-man, since they have to make sure we're not flanked from behind."

Those words made a startingly amount of sense, having someone watching your back was just as important as having someone on point who could sniff out ambushes. It also meant something, Foley trusted the Hunters, he was putting explicit trust in them to watch their backs.

That said a lot about how much Foley trusted them, more than Thalia wanted to admit. Why was he already trusting them this much? Then it hit her, the Hunters if they had wanted could have left, they could have abandoned the Rangers and they probably would have assumed that they had been incinerated in the explosions. But they hadn't, though given the glare that Thalia was getting from Febe, she figured that Febe wished to be elsewhere.

Lovely, something I have to deal with. Thalia thought miserably at that, Febe didn't like working with men. It was something she'd been trying to change, but it was clear that she needed to work on it.

She looked at where Reyna was conversing with Foley over something and he nodded before looking up. "Alright, we're Oscar Mike!"

They moved, sweeping into the crevasse opened up by the blast, moving down the remains of Williamsburg Road, it was sickening, the stench from the sewers was everywhere as was the crackling of flames as dozens of buildings burned. Thalia had to make a correction as they climbed out of the crevasse in front of a place called Rolling Thunder, the building was completely engulfed with fire shooting from the roof.

"Double time it, let's go!" Foley called and they broke into a run, the street was crumpled and ruptured in several places with the occasional crater. Flames roared into the air from destroyed buildings and a few spots in the streets. The smell of sewer gas and natural gas was everywhere, numerous street signs were down.

As they ran, Febe looked back at her. "Thalia, why do you trust them so much?" she whispered.

Thalia looked at her and whispered back. "To be frank, the only ones I completely trust is Ramirez and their medics, he was at the Battle of Manhattan and fought alongside us while the medics managed to stabilize Sanya pretty quickly. But, at the moment though they might be our best bet when it comes to reuniting with the rest of the hunters."

Febe looked aghast. "I thought you fully trusted all of them, not just a few."

Thalia shook her head. "Foley, their leader, he fully trusts us and from a certain stand point he's right to do so. We could have scampered off and left them to their own devices, but we didn't and since we're civilians still. We wouldn't be missed if we had taken off, but since we didn't and even helped get them out of the pickle of trying to find a route..." she trailed off.

Febe looked flabbergasted, but slowly, she bobbed her head in acknowledgement. "I don't like it, he's still too quick to trust. He might only trust you for all I know."

It was a sentiment that Thalia had to agree with. It didn't feel right, yet here they were. Following people they didn't exactly trust but who might be their only chance for survival in the dark days that were ahead.

Something began to prickle the back of her neck, a sense of dread. There were ruined cars everywhere and in the distance were billowing columns of black smoke. Massive columns of black smoke, that dread turned into something else. How long had it been since everything had gone completely to Tartarus? Thalia honestly didn't know, but only a few hours at most.

She heard faint shouting in what sounded like Russian, they were coming up quickly on a minimall, just a little beyond it was a small car lot. On the other side of the street was, oh joy, another gas station, a Shell this time. Her instincts started screaming at her that they shouldn't advance any further.

Just before she could open her mouth, the medic in front of her suddenly stopped and she nearly bowed him over. "What is it Ramirez?" Thalia heard Foley ask.

"Sir, that minimall up ahead, it would be the perfect place for a linear ambush. If the VDV was set up there, we would be easy meat. They could easily kill us all."

Thank Gods, our resident son of Ares saw it too. Thalia thought, feeling at least somewhat better.

"Good eyes Ramirez, Adams and Sosa get up here." Foley said, what was the sergeant planning?

The two men came up, one of them had a huge tube strapped to his back and their armor looked decidedly different. Foley pointed towards the minimall. "I want you to put an Anti-Structure round from your CG into that building, put the round near where those sliding doors are."

"Right." One of them said and they quickly set up, the other soldiers began setting around them in a line, offset slightly. Foley went around passing something out. It turned out to be a simple set of ear plugs.

"Why should we put these in?" Febe demanded hotly.

Foley smirked. "Because we're about to fire one of the loudest weapons in the entire inventory. It makes the RAVEN sound like a newborn kitten, trust me."

Okay, she had thought that the RAVEN was loud, but this 'CG' was even louder? Thalia wondered what this weapon could be as her boots, stained from all the grim she'd been walking through, began crunching on grass. She crouched next to the medic and watched as the crew finished setting up. One of them loaded something long into the back of the tube and they went through various motions. "BACKBLAST AREA CLEAR!" the first man shouted, a call repeated by several others as the man holding the tube checked behind him.

"FIRE!"

Thalia had heard the Russians fire their rocket launchers before, they tended to go snap-whoosh; this weapon didn't have any sort of subtly at all, it just went BOOM!

Her vision blurred and the ground seemed to shake as this massive roar, rivaling a drakon in power, shook the ground. It felt like she'd just been punched in the stomach by an Earthborn. This was followed less than a second later by a massive explosion followed by the roar of a building dying.

"HELL YEAH!" Someone shouted, she could barely make it out.

"Enemy in the open, staggering out of the building! Hit'em!" Foley roared and through her slowly clearing vision, she was stunned to see that a full half of the minimall was down, there was a haze of dust and smoke everywhere, barely visible were clearly armed figures that from there motions were dazed and confused.

To the rangers, they were targets. The SCARs roared and corpses began hitting the ground as the powerful rounds sliced through the men.

The hunters didn't join in the killing, Thalia looked over at the others and they were all just dazed and looking more than a little queasy at the roar of the weapon. What sort of weapon was named 'CG'? It didn't really fit all things considered.

"You alright?" A voice asked and Thalia turned her head, there was that damned medic.

"No, not really. I feel like I just got punched in the stomach, what the hell was that thing?" She asked, still feeling sick.

The medic shrugged. "Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, CG for short, it's like having a portable tank cannon. Not fun for the uninitiated who have never heard one, I would wager that everyone within a couple of kilometres heard us let that beast off its leash."

Thalia moaned as she tried to control her stomach, which was roiling from the massive shockwave. She carefully pulled out a healing potion that had been brewed by Linda and downed it, Linda had told her she'd been trying to improve the taste and she'd been moderately successful, this one tasted like a liquid black cherry mixed with apples. Immediately she could feel its effects on her.

"I hope we don't have to fire that thing again anytime soon." Erica moaned pitifully.

The medic nodded. "It's not pleasant for us either and if you thought it was bad here, imagine what the team who fires the damn thing goes through."

Okay, if it had been unpleasant for them, Thalia really didn't want to know what it was like to fire the damn thing. "Up and at them! Move!" Foley roared and the Rangers burst into motion.

"Come on!" Thalia called to the hunters, making a sweeping motion with her hand and then she burst into motion. One thing she quickly noticed was that the Rangers were fast, granted she wasn't pushing herself that hard, but it was sort of scary seeing a soldier loaded down with as much equipment as they were running. They dashed across the parking lot, Ramirez fired his underslung grenade launcher and the round burst amongst the car lot, ruptured fuel cells burst into fire as white hot fragments slashed through them as a chorus of screams rose up.

Just to be certain, Ramirez volleyed another round into that area, causing another chorus of screams to rise up as more fire erupted.

They dashed across the parking lot, leaping over the bodies of the unlucky Russians who had staggered out of the building and been promptly cut down by the Rangers.

Overhead, two gleaming shapes wove through the skies.

The Fandriver was getting desperate, he was throwing his damaged jet across the sky in ever more frantic jukes, dives, and climbs; he was running out of flares and chaff as his fighter blasted across the sky.

Clarisse didn't mind that the Fandriver was running out of options. Indeed, she could savor the fear that the Russian was fearing. He was desperately trying to escape in order to get away from her Wyvern. But it was hopeless for him, the damage was steadily building up, shrapnel from earlier missiles, a lucky 40mm 3P round here or there.

The Fandriver was frantically trying to force a turning fight, but, while that would have worked against an early Wyvern. The model she was flying could easily match, if not exceed the Fandriver's turn rate. But that didn't make the fighting any easier. Indeed, it felt like the giant was pressing down on her chest as she fought to bring the nose around.

The roar of the Wyvern's engines was like that of a feral dragon or drake, hence the famed nickname of the fighter she was flying. Come on, just a little more. Clarisse thought as her fighter gained on her prey. She was out of AMRAAMs and nearly out of Sidewinders, but unlike the old Phantom or the J-20 used by the Chinese, she still had guns.

The only reason it had taken this long was due to the damned drones. But with those now gone, the Russian was in big trouble. The Fandriver realized it was losing the fight with the Wyvern and it snap-rolled away, its airframe couldn't take much more abuse like that.

Clarisse didn't follow the maneuver, instead she climbed, gaining several thousand feet of altitude, reorientated her fighter and dove, swinging down for a gun run with engines screaming like a thousand baying hellhounds. The Fandriver saw her diving and frantically turned into her dive.

Warlord rolled with the maneuver and managed to draw enough bead for a snap shot. The 40mm cannons hammered out a half dozen shots a piece in a half second, but judging by the fact that the Fandriver was still on her scope. The shots had missed.

She was in a lag pursuit chase of the Fandriver which was shrieking across the sky in a desperate attempt to get away from her. But her fighter's superior maneuverability was working for her in this case, she began drawing bead on the target.

Almost got you. Clarisse thought as the nose of the fighter swung around on the Fandriver. Just a few more seconds.

Indeed, just a few seconds later, a dozen 40mm shells flew downrange and the back half of the Fandriver burst asunder in an explosion of fire and smoke. The aircraft went out of control, almost immediately there was a flash as the cockpit canopy flew off and an ejection seat blasted out of the dying aircraft. It plunged towards the ground and slammed into the main building for Richmond International Airport in a greasy fireball.

"Splashed." Clarisse called as she sighted the parachute, she keyed her radio. "Hunter Two, be advised, I am just about out of ordnance for you guys." She paused waiting for an answer.

"Warlord, Hunter 2-1, roger. Thanks for covering us," a man replied grimly, "I think we can take it from here."

Clarisse sighed, she wanted to continue providing support, but she couldn't and now she had to figure out where to go next. The eastern home for the Drakes was out of the question. So where could she land? "Darkstar, this is Wyvern Team Warlord, I need directions back to a barn that's in position to accept a Wyvern that's hungry for fuel and ordnance." she called over the radio.

There was a pause as the connection came through, Clarisse noted that this transmission was heavily encrypted. "Warlord, Darkstar, I have a deck with no aircraft. Right now it's probably your best bet as she was built with Wyvern Operations in mind, callsign Alamo."

Clarisse mulled over the words briefly and swore. She was going to be landing on Gerald R. Ford, the Navy's newest carrier. One that if reports were correct wasn't even finished yet and she was now being thrust into combat. Great, just lovely. "Affirmative, on route to Alamo. Darkstar, are there any other units being sent to Alamo?" she asked as she brought her Wyvern around and began heading out to sea, fast and low. She didn't know if the Russians had air defenses up yet and didn't want to find out.

"There are Warlord, VFA-101 is inbound as is VF-124, VFA-204, and VMFAT-501; USS Supply is also inbound as is an Air Force Super Herc, carrying fuel, ordnance, and crew members." Darkstar replied, the man on the other end sounded exhausted. For the first time today, Clarisse wished that she had Reyna's power. A little bit of Inspiration could certainly help with how everyone was feeling or at least get everything right.

Gods, the USN was really desperate to get Gerald R. Ford Battle Ready so that she could join the fight immediately. Which explained why they were sending Fleet Replacement Squadrons and a Marine Training Squadron to the Supercarrier. Anything to get her ready to kick some Russian ass. "Affirmative Darkstar, requesting vector to Alamo."

A moment later she got the vector and turned towards the carrier, which was making full speed ahead to the south. Obviously trying to get out of range of any Tu-160s, which given their immense range and their weapons could threaten almost the entire Eastern Seaboard with cruise missile attacks. Probably a futile effort unless they wanted her in some place weird.

"Got a really powerful search radar in the Delmarva Peninsula, judging by the emissions, I'd say that we got a Big Bird radar out there, which means there's an S-300, maybe an S-400 if we're really unlucky." Hellhound said over the intercom.

Shit, that wasn't good, if that was an S-400 it meant that they could basically kiss CAS for the majority of the Northeast goodbye. The thing was even dangerous to her Wyvern and was really one of the few air defense systems that could threaten the Drake. Which meant that the beast had to go ASAP otherwise the entirety of the area that it could engage in, thanks to its massively powerful search radar and datalink capability, would fall. Plus as far as she knew, her Wyvern was quite possibly the only thing in the region that could possibly kill the thing, barring the Morgans of the 113th Wing.

If the 113th Wing hadn't been wiped out in the opening hours of this. But given how suddenly this had all come down upon them. She doubted that those Morgans managed to get in the air before they were destroyed. If they did, then it was a Gods damned miracle, plain and simple.

Before long, the coast crept into view. "Feet wet" she called as her fighter blasted over the coastline at one and half times the speed of sound itself.

"Shadow, this is Hunter Two-One, we've found Raptor's Blackhawk; we're starting our search now. Is there a challenge and countersign for any security contingents?" Thalia heard Foley ask over the radio as they began to sweep the school. In the baseball diamond in back was the blackened remains of the helicopter, it looked similar to the ones she'd seen back during the botched mission to rescue Nico and Bianca from Westwood Academy and during the quest to rescue Artemis from Atlas.

There was a pause, Thalia didn't like this at all. She felt like they were exposed or something, they were moving through the bus lane of the elementary school. The trashed helicopter looming in the middle of the field behind it. She couldn't imagine how much longer she could honestly handle this before she broke, she was already seeing signs of wariness in her hunters. They hadn't even been fighting for days and she already felt as exhausted as she had been at the very end of the Battle of Manhattan.

"Hunter Two-One, Shadow, the challenge for the security detail is River, the countersign is Heracles." A woman's voice, Shadow, replied with a strong tone.

"Roger Shadow, challenge and countersign received, out." Foley said and then he led them into the school.

Thalia was surprised, the school was more or less abandoned. Not even the Russians had taken it. But her mind flashed back to the minimart that they'd blown up. They probably had annihilated the Russians who had been supposed to hold the school with the Carl Gustaf, she still found it funny that the weapon went by 'CG'.

"Thalia, how long do you think it's going to take for us to get to Camp?" Erica whispered to her.

"I don't know. But with how everything is going?" She paused thinking about it. "Weeks easily."

Erica seemed to pale at that thought and to be honest, Thalia didn't blame her. They would probably be all emotional and mental wrecks after this. Gods knew that she had been an emotional wreck after the Battle of Manhattan and even now she was still a bit of a mental wreck from trauma and out of all the trauma she'd been through over the years. She knew that what she went through during Manhattan would more than likely stick with her forever.

The thought of going through something worse than Manhattan for a much longer period of time was disquieting and even unpleasant to think about. But an inkling of something to look forward to in the future was better than nothing. That didn't make the thought of the upcoming days any easier at all.

"Coming up to the cafeteria, it's probably the best defensive point in the entire school." Ramirez said, their footsteps echoing loudly through the building.

Outside, they heard the feral scream of engines, loud and echoing across the landscape.

They opened the door, revealing absolute carnage, dozens of bodies lay strewn across the ground, tables were blown apart. Reyna took in a sharp breath and one of the Rangers whistled. "Someone sure had a party here."

A party wasn't how she would describe it. The whole room reeked of corpse stink from ruptured intestines and of burnt powder from discharged rifles. To say that the stench was unpleasant, was an understatement. Sanya ran to the nearest trashcan and promptly emptied the contents of her stomach into it. Febe, followed closely by the medic, went over to her and began helping her recover from this, her sensitive hearing picking up muttered words.

As they approached the entrance to the kitchen, a deep gruff voice growled out. "RIVER!"

That voice Thalia mused was familiar, she could have sworn that she had heard it before. It rumbled deeply like an earthquake and left a reverb in one's chest with how deep it was. It took her several vital seconds to figure it out.

Mars.

Ah hell.

After the day she had gone through, she did not want to deal with a god and if he gave them a quest. She wasn't actually sure what she was going to do. Probably go to one of the bathrooms and scream in frustration, loudly. If Mars did some Godly shit, she'd probably blow up the remnants of the Blackhawk with lightning. Then she really didn't know what she was going to do if, Gods help her, Mars did both.

"HERACLES!" Foley called in response and then he looked straight at her and whispered. "That's Mars, no idea why he's posing as a likely Secret Service agent."

Oh joy, so Foley recognized they were dealing with a God as well. That actually put Thalia at ease to an extent, though it was odd that Mars was posing as a security guy, it was a bit unusual for the God of War to actually show up with that portrayal. It was really weird all things considered.

"Dunn, keep watch." Foley ordered and the other man nodded.

Then Foley led her, Reyna, and Erica into the kitchen. Standing in the center of it all near the meatlocker was Mars and for a moment, Thalia paused, unsure of what she was seeing. Mars was wearing a very nice white suit, black sports jacket, a blue tie, with a bluetooth piece in one of his ears, and black reflective sunglasses. In his hands was a gun of some description.

It was weird seeing him looking almost casual. She would have expected the god of security or something not Mars. Thus she was on edge, but there was something she didn't like either. Foley wasted no time. "Status on Raptor, Agent Mars?" he asked sharply.

Thalia looked at the man in mute shock, you didn't just address one of the olympians as 'Agent'. You had to use Lord or Lady when addressing a god. Mars seemed to take it in stride however. "Got some nerve on you. He's fine, a little banged up from the crash, but nothing a week of bedrest will fix. I stashed him in the meatlocker."

She gave Mars a flat look at that look, but Foley seemed to understand and he nodded. Then he glowered. "Okay, what do you want Lord Mars, really? If you're here to deliver a prophecy, I swear..." he trailed off, but Foley was quite clearly not happy.

"I am not here to deliver a prophecy, that shit isn't in my job description. Indeed, I am here for the Hunters and to deliver a message from Diana." Mars said and Thalia groaned in dismay. She'd seen Artemis's Roman side only a couple of times, but she did know that when Artemis got up over fretting so much over something, like Apollo during his trials, that she would split into her Greek and Roman aspects before her eyes. That's probably what happened here.

"What's the message?" Thalia asked, not really sure where this was going.

"Trust in those by your side, they'll be your best chance to survive the coming days. The journey ahead will be difficult, bloody, and filled with hardship, further it will take you beyond the borders of the continent. Upon its completion you'll have forged bonds beyond inseparable. If you have there backs, they'll have your back in return." The war god said and Thalia cursed in ancient greek under her breath, there were parts that sounded like a prophecy.

Lovely. She hated prophecies, at least Mars didn't have a thing for poetry and thus they didn't have to decipher the damn thing. But she still didn't like how it sounded.

"One last thing, the country's become a dangerous place. You'll need these." He snapped his fingers and Thalia yelped as did the other hunters, there was a startled exclamation outside.

You gotta be fucking kidding me. Thalia thought bitterly, over her 'Death to Barbie' T-shirt but under her silver parka was armor. A fabric of some sort covered the armor and inside, she could feel what felt like plate armor. She glared at Mars.

Mars didn't seem to care and instead he seemed to be glowing rapidly. "I have to go now, I am needed elsewhere."

"Look away!" Foley shouted and Thalia squeezed her eyes shut, Hunters technically could look upon the divine form of a god or goddess, but it was extremely unpleasant and the one time she did by accident, it had given her such a bad migraine that she'd been bed ridden for days.

There was a flash of red and a pulse of heat. Then the Roman God of War was gone.