Ch.6 BEYOND THE HORIZION

"This is a new type of war. That's what this is."

-Unknown, On Guard "Huntress" 9/11/01

Alaska, Clear Space Force Station, 10Aug15, 0352 Zulu

An electronic klaxon goes off, its wavering tone playing for five seconds.

HARD IRON: Alert, Alert, All NORHIEM Players, ALERT, tracking eight times hostiles in Golf airspace at angels 3-2 bearing 0-9-0 speed 3-4-0 knots. All players this is a SCRAMLE alert authenticate Gainer-Zulu-One-Nine-Five. How copy, confirm with initials.

Tusk Command Post: Tusk copies, JF

Artyom Air Station: Artyom copies, SZ

Hound Naval Air Station Command Post: Hound copies, RM

AAS: Hard Iron this is Artyom, advise we have a three ship of Mig-29, callsign Petrov 12, in western most Golf….

Alaska, Hound Naval Air Station, 10Aug15, 0420 Zulu

A dream, it had to be a dream. The sky was falling almost literally, the moon itself cracked and split and a mans mind placed a sound to it, and it was utterly terrifying. Strange objects fell from the sky, the Earth shook violently almost as if it was quaking in fear from what was to come. Then they came, large humanoid hunks of metal that could only be equated to a mech from some sci-fi movie, they jutted out of their castles like kings looking over a hopeless battlefield. James was only 14 at the time, he watched in horror as a purple mammoth of a mech burned through an entire army platoon of tanks. His father, Jeffery Stone, was a commander in the National Guard and had left earlier in the day for an alert. James felt a sudden chill run up his spine, he knew that was he father's platoon. The chill left and turned to dread as the purple mech turned towards him, the beams it had been shooting turned bright, and then they came.

James shot out of bed in a cold sweat to the sound of "Battle stations, battle stations" blaring over the Deucalion's speakers. Fumbling out of his rack, he pressed his boots on and tied them as fast as possible, only to feel the VLS tubes inside the Deucalion open and fire off several SM-6's. "God fuck I hate this place." He mumbled to himself, a half Japanese-American crew member named "Hiro" chuckled at his comment, he too was getting ready, far faster than James though. "Hiro we know what the fuck is going on?"

"How the hell would I know boss? I was trying to sleep, listening to you mumble in your sleep kept me from that." He looked up at james with a sly smile. James shook his head "Well fuck me, sorry for my nightmares man." The too laughed for a second before Hiro headed out to his station. James finished up shortly after, rushing out to the ship's onboard armory.

The Deucalion had taken refuge at Hound Naval Air Station on the western half of Alaska for a resupply of munitions and other supplies. The vessel's reactor was shut down for maintenance and probably wouldn't be able to spool up enough to react and get airborne for whatever threat was out there. The last few months aboard the vessel had sent James into space, watched as Japanese teenagers fought like madmen against the reds in their own Kataphrakts, met some colorful characters, and got trained how to fight in Zero-G. Operation Giant Ego was something that kept being mentioned, and was meant for a full on attack against the Martians. But that was classified for the most part it seemed, only the notion of "soon" was heard down the pipeline.

At times like this James wondered what the hell he was doing, he never thought he had the quals for any of this. He commissioned as a Armor Commander, was sent to a recon infantry unit, got picked up by a SOF unit and pulled into a CAG group, then transferred over to a literal space boat as a "Unconventional Warfare Specialist" and then tasked as a unofficial member of the Deucalion's security force. Stuff was weird and didn't make sense, but granted with the times? Anything was to be expected, murphy's law and all.

James stopped at the armory doors, banged twice, as stood back as they swooshed open. Inside a group of Marines were kitted up and getting a brief, several others were still gearing up. A group of Frenchmen were going over battle procedures, nearby one of James new friends, Yuki Kaizuka, was arming up. James rushed over to his locker and started flopping his gear over him, making his way to the arm up line as he fastened his plate carrier and attached his holster. His gear was vastly different from the mixed-race crew, stuff directly from American SOF was ahead of what the rest of the UEGF got and made him unfortunately stand out on the vessel, uniform included.

Yuki turned around as she grabbed her weapon, "Nice, welcome to the party Jamie," Jamie had been the nickname given to James for his effeminate yelp when he first realized the vessel went into the stratosphere, then space, he was never one for heights. "What's going on Yuki? What do we got?" He pressed passed her and pushed his weapons cards to the armorer. "Incoming Ver's aircraft, Russians have taken out two of them last I heard, but we've lost a couple of your F15's I think." James shook his head as he pressed a loaded Glock 19 into his holster, "Fuck me in the ass why did they send planes up." Yuki made a quick stale laugh, "Not gonna take you up on that." James shook his head and grabbed his M4.

Thankfully James wasn't the only American onboard, 15 more were stationed on the Deucalion. Including some old faces. SSgt George Martinez and now SSgt Monika Stay, James old squad mates, were placed aboard the vessel and under his command, along with Specialist Craig Hyper from his time with Maj Homer, and an old academy friend, 1st Lieutenant Daniel Olly. Oddly enough, just as James thought about his friends, the group of them came rushing into the armory. "Look at the Americans," one of the French Marines said, "Showing up late as always," "Fuck off frog" was a quick response from the old as dirt Martinez, "Last time I checked I'm always on time." Claude, the French Marine who made the comment, laughed, he walked over to Martinez and the two hugged, old friends from some far-gone conflict it was said.

James's reunion with his old friends was sobering, the two old squamates had been through their own personal hells during their split. Monika had been fighting in the Northeast and Martinez had volunteered for skirmishes in the irradiated half of Louisiana, he let James know he probably wouldn't make it to forty. Hyper got tasked to the ship a month after James got there, a couple of the SOF guys died the month he was gone, Homer had lost a leg but still demanded to fight. Olly was UEGF First Recon, born from US Marine First Recon, and had been in Europe during its downfall only coming back to the states three months ago. He had been fighting with Germans and then the British before a Seawolf class submarine was able to pick him up.

Olly walked up to James as the rest of the group armed up, "Whats the lowdown Cap?" he held out his hand, James grabbed it and shook, "Red's got fighters or something inbound, jets scrambled, f15s down, Russians took out some of them." Olly shook his head, "Fuck me in the ass…" Yuki yelled out as she left, "Not taking that offer either!" Olly turned around and shot her a glare as she left, turning around, and looking back at James, "Was there a previous offer?" James sighed, "We speak to much alike boss." Olly shrugged and walked over to the rest of the American team, joining them, and giving them a situation update. The ship rocked again as more VLS fired off, "MISSLE INBOUND MISSLE INBOUND BRACE FOR SHOCK" shot off over the intercom, some of the members inside relayed the statement as everyone got low or even on the floor. James dropped to his stomach and used his helmet to protect his neck, unfortunately his M4 had decided to join the enemy's side and jammed itself hard into his privates, causing him to groan. The ships CIWS opened up and could be heard faintly inside the vessel. Three seconds passed, though they felt longer, before the All Clear came over the comms.

James lurched up slowly, groaning and adjusting himself, some of the Japanese Marines laughed lightly at his suffering.

Alaska, Hound Naval Air Station, 5000ft MSL, 10Aug15, 0428 Zulu

"Stroke 22, Defending east!"

"Stroke 21…. Stroke 21 Defending…WEST!"

'Stroke 26 they are on your ass, MISSLE STROKE 26 DEFEND!"

"Stoke 26 DEFENDING!"

"Stroke 23 im muddy!"

"Mojo to all players…."

"Watch your fucking altitudes don't let them get in between us!"

"Talon im Angels seven, hostiles jinking west."

"Talon copies, hostiles bearing 270"

"Master arm on, Nose up! Fox-1!"

"We are tally four, ten miles, Missile inbound defend!"

"Good kill good fox-2!"

"Shoot him! / I don't have a fucking tone!"

"Cobra 3, Mojo, in the merge…"

Alaska, Hound Naval Air Station, 10Aug15, 0439 Zulu

The Air battle was over, 8 UEF losses and 8 Vers KIA. The Ver's aircraft weren't stealthy at all, but the speed and mobility they possessed, along with weapons, caused havoc to the experienced American pilots. The SM-6's launched from the Deucalion leveled the playing field by taking down two of the Vers Aircraft.

Captain Darzana Magbaredge, or "Mag" for short, was the CO of the Deucalion. She had called all senior members and officers to her briefing room after the attack. James and Olly stood in the room, along with Yuki, several other officers and senior enlisted, to include the XO Kaoru Mizusaki, whom James had held some spite for due to her attitude towards him. "Listen up everyone," Mag said as she stood up out of her chair the Vers assault came from Wrangel Island, since the destruction of the Landing castle in Alaska, Ver's forces have been nearly hell bent on retaking the area, and it can be assumed another castle is being prepared to land again." She started to type down something on a tablet, a 3D imagine of the island and intel reported forces disposition came up on the holographic table in the middle of the room. "UECOMM has sent down orders to take out the base, reports indicate heavy ADA in the area so general aircraft cannot sortie into the area. "Captain Stone" She looked up and directly at James, along with everyone else, "Ready your team, the Deucalion will be conducting a HALO drop on the base." She looked back down, "Special drop pods for humans have been installed in two of the Kataphrakt holds. The Deucalion will be stationed high above the base while the last of the Russian stealth air fleet will bait and engage most of the Ver's forces far to the rest, your team will assault the enemies ADA emplacements, once accomplished we will drop our Kataphrakts, and four platoons of the UE Artic Warfare Group will be on station to the west and launch an airborne assault around the same time."

"Ma'am" James spoke up, "None of my people are trained in, well, whatever the hell you just asked." Kaoru shot him a glare, "Captain watch your ton-" she was cut off by Mag, "Kaoru this is why…" Whatever that 'why' was, It shut Kaoru up and made her face turn red. "I understand that Captain, I've been told its 'easy to learn' and there are instructions in the seats…" Olly was next to speak, "Oh, fantastic, I always wanted to fall from the sky in a…pod…" most of the room chuckled at his remark, including Mag. The brief continued for another hour, each member giving their two cents and learning their positions for the upcoming assault. When everyone had a grasp of what was going to happen, Mag dismissed everyone. James and Olly found their way back to the make-shift American TOC inside a unused sleeping berth, "Olly go ahead and call up the team for me and brief them on what we have, I'm going to check out these pods and then ill head back down here. "Rog Cap, cya in a bit." Olly nodded him off as he grabbed his personal tablet and started to message the team.

James left and started to make his way to where the pods were located, passing one of the youngest soldiers he ever met, Inko Amifumiu. "Yo kid," James asked as he kicked her boot. He came across her sitting on a box next to her Kataphrakt, looking down at the ground, seemingly lost in thought. "You good?" he asked as she jerked at the light kick, "Ahhh…" there was a pause as she looked around for a second. "Hey you good?" James asked, more concerned, "Yes" she said back, "Yeah my bad Sir, just uh…thinking…" James stared at her for a second, "You need to talk or something? You look ill." She looked back at the ground and went quiet. "Yo kid really," James kneeled down and looked at her, "What's going on?" She looked up at him a little bit teary eyed, "I made friend here, one of the American pilots, she died apparently. She gave me this as a good luck charm." Inko pulled out a black metal wrist band, James noticed immediately, it read CAPTAIN TAYLOR SMITH, UEAF, DEC 15 1999. "It was her dads, he…" she started to sob lightly. "Good fuck," James said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry to hear that, we've all lost people we cared about, she gave you that for a reason…" Inko looked up at James as he reached into his right arm pocket and pulled out a stack of tapped up dogtags. He pealed the tape off and should them to her, fifty-two of them. "These…" he stared at them for a good second, Inko's light sobbing coming to an end, "These are the people I've lost under my direct command, men and women who entrusted their lives to me, and I failed them." A moment passed between the two before James retaped the dogtags and placed them back in his pocket. "Listen I'm not great with giving advice on grief and all, but you keep that band, you wear it, you remember the fallen and look at it when you doubt yourself. People from the beyond will look down on you and smile because you're doing good work alright?" She wiped some tears from her eyes and stood up, "Thank you Captain, I needed that, I…" James stopped her. "Your good, grieve what you need to grieve and come talk to me whenever you need to alright?" She looked and him and gave a genuine smile, "Thank you, I will…" She gave a sharp salute and left the room, placing the band on her wrist as she left.

"Wow, that was like, something out of a badly written fanfiction." James sighed as he pushed himself up, he turned around to see who was talking, but already knew it was Monika. "You here to berate my social ineptitude or look at these pods?" he shot back rubbing his forehead. Monika put her hands behind her back and approached James, her head tilted and a slight grin on her face that made him uneasy. "Such a good father figure helping out the young arnt you Jamie?" In a quick movement, reminding James why she was the fastest draw he had known, pulled out a bottle from behind her and thrusted it into James's stomach. "Soju?" He asked as he started to handle the bottle, "Happy birthda Stone." She said as she leaned in, "Oh fuck me it is the tenth, isn't it? Wild." James said, looking at the bottle one last time before pulling Monika in for a one-armed hug. "Hehee can't forget my little bro's birthday, can I?" She said back as she hugged him tightly, "I'm older than you and out rank you, share a bottle with me after the OP?"

"Dammn Cap you got them moves!" the two quickly released their embrace and looked back to find the rest of their team walking up, Hyper appeared to be the one to make the comment, followed behind him was Martinez, then Olly who was silently clapping. "Real lady killer aren't you Stone?" Martinez said, "Fuck off George." Monika threw back as she crossed her arms. "I'd be flirty and nice to any of you if the rest of my so-called friends remembered my birthday." James told them matter of factly, even though he himself had forgotten the day. The new trio looked at each other, then Olly flashed James a forty rack of PBR. Soju was on thing, but PBR hadn't been made since the landfall a year ago, now that was a rarity. The next several hours would be spent drinking and trying to figure out how these drop pods worked. All the team members claimed their respective pod, with Hyper being the first to "modify" his.

Russian Airspace FL840, Above Wrangel Island, 12Aug15, 2309 Zulu

Exo skeletons, high density light weight composite armor, link 16 connected comms. Among other things, who ever had had the pods and the assigned gear for it, probably only wanted to invade Mars itself. Whatever and whenever a program had the time to make such advanced gear James had no clue, but he wasn't about to complain, this new gear was leaps and bound ahead of the current stuff, and he had only heard rumors of the EVNG's. The ships klaxon sounded, "You know he music, lets dance." James said as he pressed his helmet onto his head, a hiss sounding as it vacuumed sealed shut. Most of "Red Team" was already inside their pods expect for Olly who jogged over from talking to several of the Kataphrakt pilots, to include some young legend named Inaho, whom James had never really talked to. "So uh, is it…am I the only one who hasn't been to space yet? This is space, right?" Hyper said over the internal comms, "Relax rookie, nows one of those times, it pays to be the strong silent type." Martinez said back, "Martinez what does that even mean? You stole that from a show or something." Monika went over, followed by Olly, "It isn't space, technically I think, it's the thermosphere." Hyper let out a nervous laugh, "Thermo what? I got a GED boss, does that mean its hot up here?" James jutted in this time, "Hyper aren't you a fucking doctor?" Laughter erupted over the comms.

"Red team this is Deucalion Actual, prepare for drop, surprisingly all Ver's alert craft left the base and are engaging the Russians. Also have some surprise guest that will be on the northern half of the Island, some Spetsnaz from Grey team will assault around your landing time." The door to the pod slid shut and James made himself comfortable, or atleast as much as he could inside the cramp space. A small screen turned on, near the top right corner of the Pod, and the face of Mag came up, the whole CIC practically in the background, all going about their jobs or watching the live feed being uplinked from his teams' helmets. "Current ground temp is 2'F, ground winds are 145 at 10, scattered clouds and a light snowfall. Its as dark as it can be down there, no moon out tonight." James made sure his M4 was locked in place as Mag went over a weather brief. "Nothing else on my end Red team, God speed and good luck." The feed to the Deucalion's CIC went black and was replaced with a team feed, showing each members helm'd faces. "Alright gents," it was James time to speak up, "Mission is as fragged, we will land in the south east and take out all the ADA in area, once that's accomplished the Deuc will launch Kat's and the Airborne boys will drop in about ten-fifteen minutes later. If you get lost rally at point green and if that's bad, then point blue. Any questions?" A compilation of negative and no's came back in response. "Good, get ready for drop." James said as he pressed the command launch button.

All the pods turned 180 and were lowered down about ten feet. The floor above the sealed shut and air hissed out, then the bottom bulkhead doors slid open, and then the earth below appeared in all its dark majesty. "Red Team this is Deucalion, drop in five, four, three, two…." The pods were jettisoned out, a quick sense of high G hit james hard then disappeared, "Don't squeal this time, Jamie." Yukis voice came over the comms, "Who the hell is Jamie?" Hyper asked. "Quiet on the net." James went over, inside his pod a female robotic voice counted down his time and altitude, "One minute till impact, 75000 feet." James groaned, "Do they really have to call It impact?" he asked to no one in particular, "I like the term squish area" Olly came back. Time went by fast, too fast. "Deploy chutes in five, four, three, two, NOW!" James relayed to his team as he pressed his chute release button, the sudden jerk of losing hundreds of knots of speed in a split second almost made him black out from pain. Everyone's pods went green, twenty seconds till impact, "Everyone good?" confirmatory comms came back, though Hyper sounded a bit rattled. "Ok gents get ready for-" James was cut off by the sound of a loud bang on his pod, followed by several red lights inside, then he began to tumble, his shoot had failed and broken off. "Red one! Red One is fucked! I'm Going down!" his speed increased rapidly, and the G's kept increasing. Right before he passed out, he saw his pod go far off course and right into where the Martian base was located. He heard his squad yelling out at him to eject or do something, but it was too late.

Wrangel Island, 12Aug15, 2312 Zulu

James woke up to red lights flashing and a small fire above him. He tried to gain his bearing but oxygen inside was starting to get low, almost in a near panic, he pressed the emergency release on his harness which also caused his weapon to pop out and hit him for some reason. Coughing, and eyes starting to water, James grabbed his weapon and was about to smash the button to eject the door off the pod when he heard three Ver's Marines yelling at him from the outside. He paused for a minute as one of them shouldered their PDW, they were perfectly positioned. James slammed down on the button and the one-ton door fired off its henges at 200mph, smashing into the three Marines and killing them instantly. It was as James rolled out of his pod, he realized he had been upside down, and with a thud smacked onto the ground below. He tore his helmet off and gasped for air, which oddly enough was warm. He looked around as his body started to regulate itself again, a quick glance around told him he had penetrated the base itself, somewhere in what appeared to be a supply depot.

Regaining himself, James pushed off the ground and grabbed his weapon, checking to make sure a round was still I the chamber. He carefully approached the three Marines and put a suppressed round into each of their heads, just to make sure. "Red one to any red units come in…." he said over his comms when he put his helmet back on, "Deucalion Actual this is Red One, radio check?" nothing on either returns. He checked his radio, and the service bar symbol was a big red X, signifying the obvious. "Ha, ok, fuck uh…" James looked around for a moment, wondering what his next move would be. Regardless of who was left in the team, they should still be assaulting the ADA emplacements. "Fuck it" he finally exclaimed, he did a quick weapons check, and then checked to make sure his armor wasn't falling off his body. Content with situation now, he headed towards the only door in the room. He opened it slowly, weapon ready, just to peer out into the hallway. It was one way and opened off to the right, quietly and quickly James pressed out of the threshold and into the hallway, weapon readied and on fire.

The Martian base was ridiculously well made, marble-esk hallways and pure white LED lights. The floors and walls all had weird designs on them as if carefully made by a craftsman, something fit for a palace and not a military installation. No alarms had been sounded inside wherever he was, which worried James considering his hard landing. To add on, he hadn't seen any signs on the walls to signify location, or better for worse, any people. The three times he had come across a four-way intersection, he took a moment to try and radio in both his squad and the Deucalion. Right as he made his last call, he heard talking and laughing just from one of the corners approaching him. He took several steps back and pointed his rifle at the edge of the corner, ready to kill whatever came across. It sounded like a female and male talking about something, and soon enough the two walked right pass James, they didn't even notice him. But awareness is truly awful, he pressed forward and looked from where the two came from, no one else was following, then turned and pointed his weapon at the two. With a whistle, the two turned around, both of their eyes went ride as James expended four rounds into them, two in each, center mass, heart and lung. The male appeared to be a Marine and dropped dead instantly as the rounds impacted him, the female dropped like a rock. She appeared to be some command tier officer, gurgling on her own blood she looked up at James as he approached her, and then her friend. She looked back at James as he came to a standstill right above her, she gave a violent scowl, and then died.

James searched the bodies of the two for anything of value. The only thing worth his time was a Ver's frag grenade and a stripped radio on the female. The striped radio was something common with Ver's field officers, it was encrypted and used for fairly important communications. Thankfully, when the Martian expedition started and concluded, no one worth their salt in military strategy left Earth. It made thing easier when the Martians didn't change their used freq's and encryptions. Doing some quick science, James attached the striped radio to his own gear and plugged it into his headset, allowing it to play the comms but never transmit anything. James readied himself again and then pressed down the hallway the two had came down. He came across three other Marines as he continued, dispatching them all quickly, though his luck would come to an end.

The first real room in found in this labyrinth of a base was marked only with "N21A," he didn't know what it meant but didn't care to much, probably another supply depot of something. He leaned in to push the door open, but to his surprise, the door slid open automatically. What was assumed to be a practical supply closest was in fact the mess hall. Inside was about fifty Ver's Marines, Command Staff, and what looked like a Kat pilot in full kit. James eyes went wide as he slowly started to back off, only for a Marine to see him, "T-Terran!" the whole room turned around, and those armed up reached for their weapons without even confirming the presence of an enemy. In a blind panic, James pulled a frag off his belt, pulled the pin, and tossed it right at the face of the man who called him out. Trying to defend himself, the poor Marine tried to bat the object away, only to have it fall in the middle of the largest group of people. James nearly tripped backwards as he started to run away, the door slid shut and what followed was a loud compressed "BOOM," James checked his belt only to realize to had tossed a thermobaric grenade into the compact room, the overpressure alone was deadly.

Waiting for five seconds, James pointed his gun at the door, and listened for any signs of contact. Content on the situation, he went back into the room. Smoke and small fires littered the small area, most of everyone was dead save for a handful of members trying to save their near-death comrades. James dispatched the survivors as fast as he could. Though he was at his peak awareness, he never caught the dying Marine off to his right draw his sidearm and fire a round at James. Jolting with the impact of something biting into his ass, James turned quickly and fired three rounds into the man who shot him. "Fuck!" he yelled, his right butt check was on fire, and he could feel blood trickling down his leg. "In the fucking ass? Really? FUCK!" he yelled again as he now hobbled out of the room and into the only other door, it too automatically slid open. James made his way out of the mess hall, small droplets of blood trickling off him behind him as he now limped through the hallways. Just a moment after the assault in the mess hall, the lights in the hallways dimmed red and started blinking, then a voice came over the officer's radio he picked up. "Attention attention, this is Commander Romana, a Terran attack is under way, all Captains report to your designated staging areas and prepare to repel invaders, that is all."

James looked down at his watch, it was within the estimated time frame for the Martians to start realizing what was going on. It was also five minutes pass the time for his team to have taken out all the ADA emplacements. The Deucalion's Kats should be attacking the outside portion of the base. Regardless, James still had to survive till the rest of this people made their way into the base. He leaned up against one of the walls and slug his weapon, opening his IFAK and taking out some powdered quikclot. "Why do I have to be me," he said as he closed his eyes and tore up the quikclot with his teeth, after making sure non was in his eyes he pulled his pants down slightly and sprinkled the clotting agent the entry and exist would the bullet left. He gripped his rifle tightly and let out a pained groan, as the clotting agent did its painful magic, his hand starting to shake a little near the end of the procedure. "Ahhhh fuck I hate this stuff," James said as he tossed the empty packet away and pulled his pants back up. He started to move again, slowly and with a limp still, but atleast not bleeding out from his ass. He continued his press through the facility.

A war outside could be felt reverberating throughout the facility. Lights were flickering with every impact from heavy weapons and various explosions. James had been forced to take refuge inside a now dead Martians room as a full platoon of Marines ran past him in formation. After a moment of relative silence, he peaked out of the room to make sure no one was in the hallway now. He stepped out and prepped to continue moving, now with a goal in mind to make it to the Missions room. He had found a layout of the facility in the previous room. Though that would have to wait, the combination of events had taken an apparent toll on his awareness. Not even more than ten steps away from the door he had just left, someone tackled James at what felt like full speed. The one time his rifle wasn't slinged too. His rifle went flying as his body smacked into the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs. A fist was pounding on the back of his helmet hard, and he could hear screaming. Twisting his body around and fighting back against his attacker was a slight mistake, the large Martian man knocked James's helmet clean off and went in hard on his mouth. James started to fight back with his left arm as he reached for his sidearm but was able due to the position of the Martians legs. Taking another hit to the face James screamed out, "GET THE FUCK OFF!" blood and spittle smacking against the red's face. James grabbed onto the man's color and pilled himself up enough to unsheathe the knife he had on the small of his back, and as quickly has he could began viciously stabbing the right side of the man's ribs, living up to the term "sewing machine" as the knife pieced a lung several times. The Martian quickly went limp and started drowning in his own blood.

James attempted to stand up but was brought down yet again by another Martian, this time his knife was sent flying. The man gripped his hands around James's neck and tried his best to crush James's throat, but he wasn't as strong as the previous attacked. James grabbed the man's hair and pulled his head in, headbutting him multiple times till he broke his attacker's nose and freed himself. James kicked the man off and pushed himself backwards only then to draw his sidearm. He aimed, pointed, 'click', the weapon jammed. He couldn't clear the malfunction fast enough; the Martian kicked the gun right out of his hands like some badly directed action movie. James shot up as fast as he could while the Martian attempted to pull a revolver of some sort out of his partners holster, which he did faster than James could reach him. James lunged forward, throwing the man into the wall, a shot ran out and James felt an annoying pain in his left leg. James grabbed the man's wrist with the firearm in hand and started smacking it against the wall while his free hand went straight for the man's eye. The Martian screamed as James's thumb pressed deep into his right eye socket.

Then another one. A gunshot sent James flying into his current attacker, then onto the floor, whatever hit him shot right into the armor plating on his spine. Everything below his waste was partially numb. James groaned as the second attacker slid down the wall, crying and grasping his bleeding eye, James tried to get up only to see the third attacker reracking his shotgun and pointing at James. "This was it" he thought, "This is the end," almost as if everything was in slow motion, James pulled a grenade off his belt and tired to pull the pin, the Martian aimed, and then came the bang…then another. The third attacker fell to the ground, a bullet hole in his head, then the second attacker stopped crying, a wound in his head as well. James looked over to see who had saved him, some feeling coming back in his lower body. He couldn't believe what he saw, a young girl, one he had Captured months prior.

Octavia Luna pointed her gun at the Terran man, then it clicked. She recognized him, he was one of the men who tried to kill her, then saved her life months ago. One day he told her that he was leaving and would be treated well and fairly, which she was, to her surprise. Then a month after the man had left, the group of Terran soldiers she was prisoner of were ambushed. Ver's forces recaptured her, but they called her a traitor despite her best efforts at explain what happened. She was stripped of her title and sent to this island as a prisoner awaiting execution. Then the attack came, and someone ordered for her to be taken to a landing pad somewhere within the facility and transferred elsewhere. While being moved, that's when this brawl commenced. During it all Octavia waited for her chance, once the Terrans gun was knocked towards her, she picked it up, chambered it, and dismissed her captures. She was going to do the same to the Terran as well, for safety, when the recognition kicked in. "Captain…Captain…Stone?" She asked, lowering the gun slightly, her hands still cuffed together.

James looked up and breathed a sigh of relief as Octavia lowered the weapon. He laid on the ground for a moment breathing heavily, the totality of events finally catching up with him. Blood was pouring out of his nose, which was broken. One of his teeth felt chipped and his lips were busted, then there was the gun shot in his leg, he was pretty sure the round was still in the left corner of his right thigh. Things weren't looking good for Ol Capn Stone, James thought to himself as he looked back at Octavia. She looked worse for ware aswell, she had old bruises on her face and a fresh scar across her nose. Not to mention she was cuffed, and in prisoner attire. "Didn't think Id see you here Lady Luna." James said and he slowly tried to get up, taking a moment to breath heavily and force himself to his feet. Her gun was still at a low ready position, "Don't…Don't call me that…they uh…" She started to say, then suddenly she dropped the handgun. "They…they…" She looked up at James and started to bawl, "They branded me a traitor, and…and they did…they did..." Bleeding, tired, and in pain, James groaned mentally, he had an idea of what she was trying to say, but despite what basic humanity he had was a little bit to tired to put up with it to the best of his ability. James bent over and picked up his rifle, reconnected the sling, picked up his knife and resheathed it, the picked up his handgun at the base of a crying Octavia's feet. He put a arm around the poor girl and pulled her in close, letting her face fall into his shoulder. She began to sob uncontrollably, her arms down to her side.

James was never good with people getting all emotional, crying specifically. But thankfully the some of the worst times didn't need words between people, sometimes people just needed to cry it out. James remembered the words of a now old and dead friend. "You can cry, just don't be a bitch about it." The two stood there for several minutes, Octavia's crying coming to an end eventually. James slowly pushed her away before looking her in the eye, a good portion of his blood was now in her hair and clothes. "Come with us, you're with me now, we can help." She wiped off her tears and nodded. James took a step back and went to lean against a wall, he reached into his IFAK again and pulled out an Israeli bandage, he undid its packaging but fumbled, the bandage fell to the ground. "ill help you…" Octavia said, still sniffling, she bent down and picked up the bandage, then pressed and wrapped it around James's leg wound. "Thank you," James said as Octavia stood back up, he was going to say something else when his radio came to life for the first time in what felt like hours. "Red actual, Warrior three, authenticate WOD?" James chuckled, he keyed his mic, "Honey badger."

The assault went as planned for the most part. Spetsnaz and Airborne assets pressed into the base after that kid Inaho singlehandedly killed off two Ver's knights. James and Octavia held up in the lower level of barracks until Warrior came across them, James had a fun time explaining who Octavia was. The Deucalion broke its high altitude and burned hard towards the island before making landfall to take in casualties. UEF held ten dead and twenty wounded to a Vers 320 dead and 40 wounded POWs. Hyper was surprised to see Octavia again, he assumed she had died when the team had been ambushed earlier in the year. James had ordered Monika and Hyper to look after and protect the young girl while he was in the medbay. He had to make sure certain people didn't harass her, namely some half Martian girl on the ship named Rayet. Any typical hatred of the Reds was fine in James's book, but something about the brain-dead intensity of her hatred bothered him to no bounds.

Russian Airspace FL950, Above Moscow, 16Aug15, 0109 Zulu

A quick surgery here and there and earned James some time off, though it was forcibly spent in the medical bay of the Deucalion. He wasn't able to smoke onboard the vessel, so he had to make do with gum at the moment. Unwrapping a stick, he tossed a pieced in his mouth and began chewing. Monika had come to see him earlier, the two talked for an hour about some things before leaving, not before stealing a kiss though. His next visitor was unexpected and pretty much unwelcomed. The XO, Kaoru Mizusaki, walked in, but oddly enough with a basket of…fruit? "Captain Stone," she said as she placed the basket down on a small end table next to James's bed. "The doctors told the Captain and Myself you should be good within the week." She pulled an apple out of the basket and started to slice it. "That sounds right," James said, intrigued why she wasn't being the nuisance she had been the entire time he was abord the vessel. "Right..uh, ah." She said as she looked him in the eyes, then back down to the apple. "The Captain wanted me to inform you that your on medical leave for the next two weeks, so get better, she said we will need you and your team for the next operation." James stopped her for a second, "What's the next mission?" she stopped her slicing, looked him In the eyes, and simply pointed up.

NOTES

Alllllllllllllright sorry for the delay, been busy AF learning how to fly and stuff practically. Kinda forget this existed until I saw the app on my phone. Decided to take a peak and saw two comments on this story saying they "awaited the next chapter" pretty much. If two people like what I shit out ill keep going on. Sorry for taking so long you for you guys that DO like this.

From now on im gonna loosely use the actual story as a basis for writing and go my own way, which should work a lot better for progression and such. God willing every month or two months for a release. I can probably do two to five more chapters depending on how I wanna make this flow and such.

Love yall, and as always, stay safe.