The characters and the plots belong to Dolphinheart99 and to their respective and rightful owners. I got authorization from Dolphinheart99 to take some elements of her stories. I therefore own nothing, minus the names of my OCs.
After the five-hour long training exercise, Reese and her fellow allied troops took a well-earned rest when a US Marines remarked the OpFor troops had finished collecting all of the bullet casings fired by American and British forces. Reese and the allied forces took the pause to clean their M4A1 carbines and M27 rifles when Reese suddenly rose her eyes and spotted her father and aunt Sonja. Reese then let out a sigh of frustration, since she didn't see her aunt since Sonja moved to Genovia while Owen was in Iraq. The Marine Private First Class then resumed her rifle cleaning duty before Sonja came to Reese's height.
"Hi Reese. Remember me?" Sonja gently asked.
Reese then said, "Yeah. But I'm quite busy now. Gotta rest for a short while before going to train further."
"I see. But did you know your niece Valentina was coming here for a scouting jamboree?" Sonja further announced.
Reese then stopped cleaning her M4A1 rifle and asked, "What?! That little brat?! Not worth giving a fuck!"
Owen then stepped in and told his daughter, "Reese! Valentina's your cousin!"
"I know. But she tried to prevent me from changing my mind from the Air Force to the US Marines." Reese said.
As Reese argued with her father and aunt, a British Royal Marine asked, "What the heck's happening?"
"Well, Grady's got small family problems. Her cousin's an idealist and tried to stop Grady from joining. So Grady hates the kid." A US Marine announced.
"I see. So, let's not disturb her further." The British Royal Marine said.
As her colleagues kept cleaning their rifle, Reese stopped arguing with her family before cleaning her rifle. Lex, Sonja, her brother and the others then walked back to Joey's bar while Reese finished cleaning her M4A1 carbine before assembling it and loading it up for the next phase of their exercise, called Maritime Endeavor. Reese and the other military personel involved in the exercise indeed knew they had to be ready for anything coming for them. They had indeed already performed live-fire exercises in Scotland and England, where they all got familiar with each other's procedures and equipement. The British-American unit then set out for another day of hard training, since they would be involved in a ultra-realistic wargame, which was designed to immerse the US Marines and the British Royal Marines into a modern warfare environment.
In the meantime though, Valentina and her fellow young scouts arrived in Genovia, where the scouting jamboree was to take place. Valentina was excited since she was going to meet children and teenagers from many parts of the world who, like her, believed war was unecessary and in the uselessness of any military force in the world, so that peace may reign supreme. Valentina herself was a staunch believer of non-violence and saw her cousin as a psychopath willing to use whatever means necessary for war. And Valentina was indeed just as naive as she was before.
"The armed forces is useless! No need for them! Just good for violence!" Valentina said.
"Yeah, right!" An 8-year-old girl scout replied.
A teenage boy scout then said, "So true. The military personel are only good at shooting, firing, sleeping, eating and killing. We're here to promote peace."
Little did they know they would be involved in a blank-fire exercise sponsored by the British Royal Marines and US Marines. And little did Valentina know she would have an unexpectedly early family reunion, since one of the US Marines involved in the exercise was none other than Reese, Valentina's older cousin. And little did Valentina know she would once more get into another family feud and even prolong it, since the two cousins would also get into heated arguments.
But for now, Reese had finished cleaning her M4A1 rifle and had even prepared her equipment for the next phase of the exercise, which consisted of a simulated raid against an enemy-held stronghold. And the Marine Private First Class was finally at the pointman's position, which was the most dangerous one since it exposed Reese directly to enemy fire, which was of course simulated since the training would be performed with blank ammunition. Moreover, Reese was aware these exercises were of utmost importance, since most of the environment she was going to operate for the upcoming tour of duty would take place under the scorching sun and an extreme heat, justifying the huge amount of water Reese drank since the beginning of the exercise. And Reese knew thanks to her cold weather training during Exercise Cold Response in Norway or her extreme heat training in California that drinking water was just as important as keeping her weapon clean.