Time for a reunion with a pair of brothers. That's right folks, it's time for the McCall brothers to reunite in the Lone Star State. I've been planning this one for some time and have been trying to figure out how to do it, now I have. Get ready for a bit of action you'd see in a western movie or game like Red Dead Redemption.
Onto reivews.
Mr. Shades42: I've been trying to figure out on how to bring in a few Division Agents, I think I have an idea for bringing in Kelso and a few others, but if you have ideas for agent names and equipment, please let me know. I could use all the help I can get.
Mpower045: It wasn't exactly fighting on top of a train, but I am glad you liked it.
Spartan-626: I can tell you this much, Price and Soap will be getting in the spotlight this chapter. Same goes for the guys from Russia will be getting in on the action.
Reviews are answered, let's get started. Disclaimers are the same as before. Please enjoy.
Chapter 41: Brothers Forever
July 18th 2020 19BBY
San Antonio, Texas
Alamo Mission
1000 hours
Normal point of view
Standing on top of the old Alamo fort with an old Winchester 1866 chambered to fire the .45 Colt round, National Guardsmen Thomas McCall a twenty-eight year old male with shoulder length brown hair, short mustache and beard looked out over the seventh most populous city of the United States which was now a city of wrecked buildings and black smoke. Like the rest of the country and the world Separatist, PMC and terrorist forces had turned normally peaceful cities into warzones. San Antonio was one of those cities.
Aside from a few airbase's, San Antonio was also the closest city to the American/Mexican border. All along the border of Mexico running all the way to California, Trumps border wall was an obstacle for the reinforcements Thomas heard were coming from South America. These guys were from Chile and were being supported by someone named Kota and his militia along with a member of the Expendables, the mercenary unit his brother Ray was a part of.
Its importance was vital to the enemy forces that they had sent a large number of enemy forces to ensure the city was still under their control. This of course was met with opposition from both the Wolverines and Texas Rangers. Intelligence suggested that the president had dispatched a special ops unit of the Strategic Homeland Security agents, called the Division into areas with a large amount of 'undesirables' and 'terrorists. In truth, the agents were assigned to eliminate all non-white Americans, Mexicans and others who the president deemed to be a threat to national security and ordered them to work with the Separatists and their allies.
Almost immediately after these orders were given, the agents of the Division soon found themselves watching their 'allies' gun down innocent civilians and unarmed prisoners in cold blood. This caused them to turn against their allies and ended up working with the Wolverines. The tech the Division had made the resistance a more powerful force to reckon with. Such was the case with Thomas and the men he had at the Alamo. Engineer Daniel Pollock, scout Tanya Sheridan, medic Claudia Christian along with leader Cesar Adams were some of the 'rouge agents' that joined up with the resistance and began the long process of trying to make a hole in the border wall for the back up from down south to use as a gateway into the U.S. However, the enemy presence in the city was far greater than anticipated and forced the Wolverines to hold up in the Alamo and wait for back up. That was over two weeks ago and they were starting to run low on supplies but they now had a bigger concern, the enemy was starting to attack the old fort again.
This force was far greater that the last several assaults and was now packing both armor and air-support. One enemy AAT fired its cannon at the fort causing the whole building to shake from the explosion as one of the other defenders took aim with their M202 rocket launcher and fired all four rockets at the tank before a sniper round blew the soldier's head clean off resulting in the body of the defender falling over the wall of the fort and to the ground below.
"Damn it, that was the last of our rounds for the launcher. We're fucked now!" another defender shouted as machine gun rounds from an enemy M1A2C whizzed past his head before a cannon round slammed into the fort's wall, almost knocking it down with ease.
Thomas was unfazed by this and fired his lever-action rifle at any targets he could hit. Fire, pull the lever chamber a new round and fire again, that was the rhythm Thomas heard as and several other soldiers fired the other lever action rifles, all from his collection and distributed out due to the shortage of assault rifles and AR rounds like AK74 and the 5.45mm.
It warmed his heart to see his Winchesters, Henry's, Marlins and the three Evan's repeater rifles were being used again to defend the people of the state he called home, especially considering the Winchester he was holding was the one the Arthur McCall, their ancestor used in the old west during his time as a bounty hunter. Under normal circumstances, weapons like these were not used by the military anymore, but due to the current situation these weapons were being dusted off and used again. The same thing applied to the Garand, Springfield, Thompson and other retired weapons that were collected over the years by private collectors, all of which were still in working order.
Despite the firepower, the defenders of the Alamo were outnumbered considering the last several assaults saw many of their members were dead or wounded being treated inside the fort's old barracks. Machine Gun fire from below killed a few of the soldiers on the wall before gun fire from above cut down several enemy soldiers, followed by a well-placed round from the M203 launcher mounted underneath Daniel's M16A1 blew away a few battle droids before the rest were picked off by Tanya's PGM Hetcate II.
Outside of the walls, pinned down by enemy fire a few national guardsmen and marines were trying to get back into the fort having been sent to set up a few IED's to slow down the enemy were starting to get picked off by a squad of battle droids. Two soldiers fell to the ground dead before the droids was riddled with bullets courtesy of Cesar who had his riot shield up and his M9's barrel smoking while Claudia deployed her Striker drone which went after a few incoming destroyer droids while she laid down some covering fire with her AR-15 allowing for the soldiers trapped outside to fall back inside the fort while the two Division agents held off the enemy for as long as possible before they to fell back into the fort.
Once they reentered the fort and closed the doors, enemy gunships soon arrived and began to fire at anyone on the ground that wasn't in cover. Those that were, trained their weapons on the gunship and fired on it, only for their rounds to bounce off the vehicles armor. Thomas soon aimed his Winchester at the gunship and fired, trying to get the vehicle to turn its attention to him. He did so, and just before the enemy gunship could fire on him, a missile slammed into the enemy vehicle sending it spinning out of control where it crashed into a few enemy tanks.
Looking at the missile trail, Thomas was stunned to see a formation of F-15C Eagles streak overhead before a formation of F15E Strike Eagles launched air to ground missiles at some of the enemy tanks before they pulled off and came around for another pass. Following them were other fighters like the F-16, F/A-18, F-20, F-5, SU-35, Typhoon and other unknown fighter which began to attack both the enemies air and ground forces. "Where the hell did, they come from!?" Claudia asked as she finished patching up one of the wounded soldiers' injuries. Before anyone could answer a long sharp and loud blast of a steam locomotive's whistle echoed throughout the city causing almost everyone to stop firing.
While this was going on, the 4014 pulled into the San Antonio's Union Station before it disconnected from the cars and coaches it was pulling allowing its cargo of tanks, mech's and other vehicles to make their way off the cars and onto the ground while the soldiers in the coaches exited them with their weapons loaded and ready for battle.
Weighing in at seventy tons and with a top speed of 30mph, Ray McCall powered up the Thor mech he boarded after a Rhommel Tank rolled off the car ahead of him and took point at the head of the armored column before he keyed in his commlink. "Price, take your boys and hit those Mortar teams the pilots spotted on their attack run. The Alamo's defenders can't take much more!" Ray said before he pulled the trigger and fired off a few crossbow missiles at some enemy tanks that had just arrived.
"Copy that. Don't worry, we'll take them down. Just get your arse to the mission and we'll take care of the mortars." The TF141 captain replied over the commlink before he, Ghost, Roach, Soap and other TF141 soldiers, along with Delta Squad, Darmen and Gregor took off towards the mortar's in a few Stryker's while Ray lead the armored column and infantry towards the fort, taking out any enemies that got in his path using his pulse lasers.
(Mech Assault Battle Theme 1 Starts)
Battle droids of all kinds along with Black Tusk infantry tried to hold off the advancing enemy forces, but the only thing they got was a one-way trip to the scrap heap and the pits of hell. Others started to retreat while a pair of enemy tanks rolled towards them firing all their weapons at the Thor while the walkers and tanks behind the mech picked off the stragglers that were still trying to bring down the blue and yellow mech.
A squad of AT-RTs jumped over some destroyed cars that the enemy was using as cover before firing their mortars at several incoming Black Tusk mini-tanks, destroying them before they turned their attention to one of the enemy AATs. A barrage of blaster fire from the 3.2-meter-tall walkers took down the tank with little effort. No sooner had the tank been destroyed, two of the walkers were destroyed by an enemy rocket launcher forcing the other three walkers to flank the enemy through the alleys in order to flank the enemy and catch them from behind.
Grimlock, Sludge, Swoop, Snarl and Slug had just lobbed a few detonators towards the enemy which upon exploding created a smokescreen blinding several enemies armed with rocket launchers from firing at any of the other recon walkers allowing the others to flank the enemy through the alleys. The Arc Troopers then moved forwards mopping up any remaining droids that were still functioning while several British and Canadian Royal Marines along with a few squads of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines moved into the alleys with the AT-RTs rather than brave the storm of blaster and gunfire being sent in their direction. The maneuver worked and both the walkers and marines successfully got behind the enemy units still attacking their allies, catching them off guard as the Thor crushed a retreating AAT before its four .50 caliber machine guns roared to life cutting down the enemy as Challenger, Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks followed close behind the heavy mech several groups of them turning down side streets in order to get closer to the Alamo.
While Ray lead the main force, several miles away Price, Soap, Roach and Ghost along with their brothers and sisters in TF141 and the six clone commandos were also dealing with problems of their own. They had reached the location of the enemy mortars which were using an aerial drone to mark the positions of the defenders in the fort and just found out that the mortar teams were Chinese and North Korean soldiers, were about to use white phosphorus rounds on the defenders, many of whom were wounded and undergoing medical treatment from several battles earlier. Upon making contact with the enemy, they were met with a barrage of blaster fire from separatist double-barreled repeating blaster turret before Sev sniped the droid on the gun allowing the others to move up and capture the mortars before any of the incendiary rounds were launched.
Taking the mortars only caused the nearby enemy units to turn their focus towards the attackers and called for reinforcement. A radio transmission from McCall told them that the enemy infantry was starting to push the attackers back. This gave Price an idea.
"Ghost, Roach. Get on that mortar. Let's give those bastards a taste of their own medicine!" Price ordered, raising his M4 Carbine and pulled the trigger of his rifles M203 grenade launcher firing a 40mm grenade round which slammed into a group of droids that had managed to avoid detection, blowing the droids into bits of scrap metal. Soap followed suit with fire from his M249 SAW while other TF141 members fired their own weapons towards the enemy.
Using this opportunity, Ghost positioned the enemy drone over the enemy forces and called out the elevation and range to Roach who then loaded a White Phosphorus round into the mortar which then streaked towards the enemy's positions before detonating and lighting several enemies and plants on fire. "Ha, how do you like it!?" Ghost said before Roach fired another mortar round, a standard one.
As for the Clone Commando's, they were once again facing off against several A-DSD advanced Dwarf Spider droids that had already claimed the lives of several TF141 members. Scorch and RC-8015, Fi of Omega Squad fired their anti-armor attachments towards the enemy units, blowing off the armor plates off one of the walkers allowing Fixer and RC-3222 Atin to hit the sensor eye in the center of the droids body, destroying that droid while Sev and Niner sniped several enemy snipers that were taking pot shots at them from a nearby office building. Boss and Darmen on the other hand had picked the machine guns from two fallen TF141 soldiers and laid down a field of suppressing fire pushing back several attacking squads of incoming enemies before they began to retreat. "The enemy is running with their tails between their legs. Let's go lads, can't keep the others waiting forever!" Price instructed and lead the others to the Ray's combat area.
Back with the main force, Ray pulled the trigger and fired another burst of his mech's machine guns taking out a GAT while a round from an ATTE slammed into an enemy Abrams tank, destroying the tank. Another enemy tank fired its main cannon at an ATTE, blowing off one of its legs and damaging its main cannon and would have killed all those onboard the walker and the enemy armored unit not been destroyed by a well-placed shot to its side.
Looking towards the direction of the shot, a Leopard 2 tank was leading the charge followed by several other M1 Abrams tanks with Lennox, Epps, Cindy and several other members of the Wolverines in Texas charging towards the enemy on both sides. Their PMC allies having already retreated and that fighting or trying to escape would only lead to their deaths, the North Korean and Chinese attackers surrendered and were taken prisoner while Ray exited the Thor and ran to the door of the fort.
(End OST)
One of the clone troopers ran up to the door of the Alamo. "Is anyone in there?" he asked.
"Come on in and find out you piece of shit!" Thomas answered from the other side with one of his shotguns in hand and ready to fire at whoever was ever on the other side and was foolish enough to enter. He was about to pull the hammers pack when a familiar voice caused him to lower his weapon.
"Thomas!" Ray shouted from the other side. Hearing the voice of his big brother, Thomas opened the door and allowed Ray to enter the fort. "Thomas!" Ray said in relief hugging his brother. Like any brother who hadn't kept in touch with their sibling, Thomas was both relieved and angry to see his brother. "It's been almost three years. Ray, you old bastard where the hell have you been?" Thomas demanded.
"Come on Thomas, at least we know Ray is still alive. That's what's important." A man in his early twenties with average dark brown hair, green eyes and dressed in black minister's outfit covered with blood.
"William!" Ray said with relief and hugged his younger brother as well. "Look at you, still a servant of God just like the last time I saw you. I couldn't be prouder of you." Her added with a chuckle as Price and the others arrived along with the Division agents who were stunned to see these new arrivals, especially the Clone Troopers and Ray who was still in his spartan armor.
"I prayed and prayed to God that you were alive. If this is a miracle of god or fate, I am glad that we are a family again." William answered before he sadly turned back to the defenders, he tried to save but died from their wounds. "I do have to agree with Thomas, where have you been Ray?" William asked. The oldest McCall chuckled and when he brought his brothers to the train station, he told them everything that had happened since he left Earth.
Thomas point of view
July 19th
1400 hours
Brownsville, Texas
I was still trying to wrap my head around what Ray had told me and William. Tarkin and his master Darth Sidious were part of a conspiracy against another government in another galaxy and were the ones responsible for escalating the 'Clone War' as it was called and were playing both sides just too further their own lust for power. Heard that Tarkin bastard was just as prejudice as our old man and wasn't above killing innocent people and framing the Jedi order and the Republic for it.
Guys like that make me sick and it's one thing I hate in any world. Killing folks who can't fight back isn't exactly warfare, just murder. Reminds me a lot of those scenes in WW2 movies that showed the concentration camps the Nazi's set up for the Jewish and all those other people they hated. Thinking about it makes my skin crawl.
My thoughts were broken when Price nudged my shoulder and I looked back through my binoculars, identifying the targets near the border wall. Other units were doing the same thing all along the wall set over the border of the Lone Star State. Of all the states that damn thing had to be in, Texas had more of the wall then New Mexico, Arizona and California combined. Then again, Texas did once belong to Mexico before the state declared independence in 1836 after the revolution. Made me wonder what the people from back then would think if they were alive and seeing this now.
"Looks like those bastards have set up a couple of pillboxes. They got the Mini-Guns in them are still being oiled up. Biggest concern is those tanks and APC's they got surrounding the damn thing means we'll have to bring in armor of our own, maybe a few helicopters." I said handing Price the binoculars who confirmed what I had reported.
"Looks like they also got clanker vehicles too. A few of those blue tanks, wheeled ones and a few of those big spider walkers. Ray, didn't you say the wheeled ones also work like anti-aircraft batteries?" Price asked.
"The IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tank, Hailfire's. Thirty heat seeking missiles and a single laser cannon. Nasty weapons. I've seen a lot of soldiers mowed down by that damn thing and very few of them ever survive attacking those things. They aren't invincible though. The Thor could handle them, but we didn't bring it with us." Ray answered and added.
"Let's not forget those shit heads have already repelled several attempts on breaking down the wall and paid the price for it." I reminded them, pointing to one of the many wrecked vehicles that littered the area from several attacks' months before.
"Maybe all we need is a little distraction. Thomas, you still able to hit anything with a rifle since I last saw you?" Ray asked. I knew what he was getting at when he grabbed one of the Winchester rifle's we brought with us, specifically the 1892 with the scope attached to it. I smiled and grabbed a 1886. "My brother and I can draw their attention by sniping them from a distance. Price, take your boys and see if you can place some C4 on those tanks. Those droid tanks look like they are powered down, so if they are activated, they'll come right for us. That should give you guys some breathing room." My brother added before the two of use left Price and the others to find a good sniping position.
Our position was a damaged office building several yards away from the wall which gave us a good view of the area. Loading one round after another into my Winchester 1886 and waited with my brother for Price and his men to get into position. A light flash from Roach gave us the signal to begin sniping. Taking aim at one of the enemies manning the machine gun on one of the enemy tanks, I held my breath and fired. A single round from my rifle exited the barrel and flew towards my target, killing the bastard instantly. Ray fired a round from his Winchester and took out the gunner on another tank which soon got the enemy diving for cover or start moving towards our location. We both chambered another round and fired again, taking out another two enemy rifle men with another headshot.
Our rifles weren't designed to penetrate body armor, so we had to aim for the exposed areas below the helmet of the LMB bastards, Black Tusk guys with face masks were easy but for the droids, it took about two rounds at the most to take them down. I fired my last round before ducking down and started to reload my rifle while Ray kept on firing his rifle before he ducked down to reload as well. "Time to relocate." I told my brother who agreed and the two of us quickly made our way out of the building just before the enemy arrived at our location.
Price soon radioed us that he and his boys had just planted the charges on several of the enemy armored units and were now moving through the trench towards another target near the wall, a motor pool which held several inactive enemy walkers. Taking those out would give this guy Kota some breathing room when they entered the state. Ray and I soon setup another sniping position and began to fire our rifles again taking out more enemy soldiers the same way we did when we started. This time, Black Tusk had already activated one of their recon drones which was no firing their weapons at the two of us. The bullets shattered the windows and blew holes through the walls sending plaster and glass onto us, lucky for Ray he had that armor of his, but for me a bullet in wrong place would mean I wouldn't be attending that Rodeo in the future.
The drone's weapons stopped firing at that enabled Ray to take out the blaster carbine he had with him and began to fire the weapon at the drone, damaging it while I kept on engaging the enemy soldiers down below. More bad guys fell to my shots while my brother kept on firing that space weapon of his at the drone before he finally took it down. But that's when another drone arrived to take its place, only to be hit with a rocket from below. Looking out the window, I saw those Division agents had arrived and were engaging both the drone and the other enemies. "Timing couldn't be better." I mused to myself before I grabbed my rifle and headed for the stairs with my brother.
The enemy had already entered the building and was starting to work their way towards our position, lucky for us we laid a few claymores and tripwires just for such an occasion. The explosions of the devices detonating shock the building a bit before we heard several more voices coming from down below, indicating that several more of those PMC guys and droids were getting closer and closer to us. Sadly, for them we were more than ready.
(Mexico Fight, Bound in Blood OST begins)
"Surrender!" one of the droids demanded before the damn thing was blown apart by a blast from my rifles masterkey at the droid blowing it to bits before I fired the last two rounds at a few other droids before firing the rifle.
"Welcome to Texas!" I said with a smile, mowing down several enemies while Ray who had just joined me opened up with the Galil he brought with him, taking out a few enemies before he threw a grenade into the hallway. This forced us to duck behind the wall of the room we had been using as a sniper position before the grenade exploded, taking out a good portion of the enemies. "Let's clear them out of this building!" I shouted to my brother, who nodded and took point due to his armor's shielding.
"Just like old times, ain't it brother?" I mused loading new shells into my rifles shotgun attachment before I bashed the butt of my weapon into the head of one of the droids. This was followed by a burst of rifle fire from the two of us which forced the enemy to retreat back down the stairs as we pursued them.
Ray didn't say anything as moved forwards down to the door way to the lobby of the building. The doors were closed but voices from behind clearly told us that they were waiting for us. Ray looked at me and even though he had a helmet on, I knew he was grinning as he had the same idea I had. We stacked up alongside the door, slinging or attaching our weapons to our backs and drew our sidearms. Ray had a pair of Smith and Wesson 686 .357 magnum revolvers which were unique since they could hold seven rounds in the cylinder instead of the standard six like other revolvers. As for me, I drew my trusty Redhawk .44 magnums and we stacked up on the door.
Rather than throw a flashbang through the door, we kicked the door surprising the enemies on the other side and gunned them all down. "Yep, just like old times." I said reloading my sidearms while the Division agents soon joined us.
(End OST)
"Damn, and I thought Ghost Recon and the Green Berets were some tough bastards." Tanya stated impressively while she and the others policed the weapons and ammo from the dead enemies. "But you two, you guys are something else." She added.
"Just doing our job ma'am." I replied.
"Job nothing." Daniel said, tuning his mini-turret for what seemed to be the umpteenth time this day. "The two of you could probably go into business for yourselves being a couple of bounty hunters." He added.
I was about to reply when the noise of a trashcan being knocked down caught our attention. Looking outside, one of those Black Tusk rushers was starting to run for their life no doubt probably trying to get some backup to take us down.
"She ain't getting away." I said and whistled. The Division guys were a little confused but my older brother knew what I was doing. I ran outside the building and jumped onto my girl, Annie a female black Arabian horse I raised since she was mare after her mouth was mauled by a couple Bobcats that had gone rabid. I was only able to kill a few of them with my Henry, but by the time they fled her mother was dead. Since then, she's been like a daughter to me and I even had a local blacksmith make her some armor to keep her safe, in the event a bunch of delinquents tried to take a few shots at her.
Taking the reigns of my horse I went after the runner, lasso at the ready.
(Walker Texas Ranger intro 1 starts)
This soldier was quick, probably must have been a part of their high school or junior high school track team when they were younger. They may be fast, but a horse was faster especially my girl seeing as I always took her out on long runs all the time before today. That and I also kept well fed.
"Come on girl, lets get her." I said to my horse before she leapt over a fallen street light which got us closer and closer to the fleeing enemy. The closer I got, the easier it was to hear the soldier's shouts.
"I don't want any part of this. I'm not stupid to take on one of you bastards. Just let me live, I've done nothing but follow orders!" she shouted back at me without even looking back at me.
"Don't matter." I said, swinging my lasso around before I tossed onto the soldier, causing her to trip and fall before I jumped off my horse and hogtied her. "You got something I want and you're going to give to us." I added, picking up the soldier and placed her Annie's back, giving the soldier a light pat on the ass which caused her to cuss at me. I soon shut her up smack across the face before I went back to my Brother and the others.
(End song)
By the time I returned, Price and his men had just arrived and radio chatter indicated that the other units had already blown several sections of the border wall open allowing Kota and guys from South America entry into the country. I got off my girl, secured her to a lamp post and removed the Black Tusk member from the horse before I threw her to the ground as several other's in the same kind of armor, two soldiers one from Chile and one from Germany and I man wearing some kind of armor that matched the armor worn by two other soldiers, both of whom were aliens.
"Now then little lady," I began, as the unconscious soldier started to come too. "You're going to tell us what we want to know." I added.
Normal point of view
July 21st 2020 19BBY
Dallas/Fort Worth Texas
0925 hours
The skies over the stadium of the Dallas Cowboys were silent as the sun shined brightly over the tenth largest metropolitan areas in the Americas. The city its self was another story. The once busy streets full of people going about their daily lives were now filled with the armored patrols belonging to both the Separatists and their PMC allies.
A formation of Black Tusk, LMB and Artemis tanks rolled past the main building of the Texas Ranger F Company while a few AAT's and AT-ST's came up shortly afterwards escorting several transports carrying components for several anti-armor weapons. All across the city, anti-tank weapons were being placed in key areas like parks, the roofs of buildings like hotels and other buildings or had them guarded by numerous infantry platoons.
From the roof top of the building, a squad of Mandalorian armor clad figures consisting of Bo, Vaer, Lucia, Koylar and Garrod along with Jess, Grace, Thomas, Gunner, Faye, Marie, Angelo, Alex, Darmen, Fi, Atin and Niner. Several recon droids soon returned to the Clone Commandos who soon projected a holographic map of the city with several areas highlighted in red. "It confirms it, the enemy has set up numerous anti-armor emplacements. That's a big threat to the task force heading into the city. Niner, get on the comm, warn General Kota and get him to halt the advance, send the locations of the guns as well." Darmen ordered his brother.
Niner did so and once it was done, Gunner started handing out blocks of C4 to each and every person on the roof. "I'd suggest we hit as many of those guns as possible. Even if an air strike is called in, the fly boys are going to be dealing with a lot of enemy firepower in the air and from the ground with those droid cannons." He said.
The others agreed and left the stadium splitting off into groups of four to take out as many of those guns as possible.
Far away from the city, and taking off from the Waco Regional Airport a formation of Chile F-5's, SU-35's, SU-33's, British and German Typhoons, Russian MIG-29's and French Mirage's climbed to five thousand feet before they were soon joined by the two of the most famous American fighter planes built in the 20th century. They were the F15C Eagle, F15E Strike Eagle, the primary multi-role fighter of the United States Airforce.
The F15, which was first flown in 1972 after America left the Vietnam war and entered service in 1976, was a twin-engine aircraft dedicated for engaging enemy aircraft and was the primary fighter of the United States Air Force. The F15's top speed was Mach 2.5 and had a greater combat range than the F16. It carried eleven hard points like the F16 and was also armed with the same 20mm cannon used by the Falcon. Its counterpart, the F15J was used by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force and featured the same specifications as the American model.
As for the F15E, the Strike Eagle, as it was called was a two-seater multirole strike fighter designed to carry out the same missions as the A-10 Thunderbolt and SU-34 fighter bomber. Unlike the A-10, The F15E was faster and could also hold its own in a dogfight against enemy aircraft like the MIG-29 and Droid Starfighter. Like the F15, the F15E carried eleven hardpoints, a 20mm cannon and had a top speed of Mach 2.5.
The F15C and F15E were faster than aircraft like the F16C, F5E and F4 Phantom and was more heavily armed. But like the F15J, both the Eagle and Strike Eagle were given an extra 20mm cannon mounted on the left-wing root and were given more ammo for their guns.
Now these aircraft, along with the aircraft from other countries were now headed towards Dallas to carry out their mission. Their mission: drop laser guided bombs and fire air-to-ground missiles on anti-armor targets and clear a path for the allied armor. Though they were capable dogfighters, the F15E's were carrying only four air-to-air missiles so they were at a disadvantage. Thankfully, the F15C's and other aircraft were flying top cover for the strike fighters.
Each fighter squadron was flying in groups of four while the Strike Eagles kept their distance in order to allow the allied fighters to carve a path through the enemy fighters and protect the strike aircraft. Flying number 1 in the fifth group was Airman First Class Nathan Powell, callsign 'Pixy'. A native from Texas and coming from a long family of fighter pilots dating from World War 2, Nathan always wished to partake in an aerial battle much like the ones his Grandfather and uncle took part in over the skies over the pacific and Europe against the Nazi's and Imperial Japanese.
While he respected the Japanese and Germans, he held a great distaste for the Nazi's and was planning to take down as many as he could while protecting the Strike Eagles. Enemy intel confirmed that the Fourth Reich Terrorist group had several squadrons of fighter planes ranging from the F-22 Raptor to the SU-47, rumors of them flying those TIE fighters were also confirmed.
"I'll make you proud, Pa." Powell said silently to himself before he looked to the picture of his girlfriend Sophia Gordon and smiled. He had a reason to fight and he was going to make it back to his girl. He returned his focus to the matter at hand when a Russian MIG-35, flown by his man Ryabtsev Vitomir 'Vito' Vasilievich, callsign 'Cipher' radioed him.
"Powell, we are approaching the AO. I'd arm my missiles if I were you." the Russian pilot suggested.
"Copy that, Vito." Powell responded and armed his missiles. Like the rest of the fighters on top cover duty, they were all armed with air-to-air missiles including the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, which Powell called RAAM's.
No sooner had he armed his missiles; his radar picked up bogies approaching directly ahead of them. A large formation of enemy fighters was approaching them head on. Vultures, TIEs, Raptors, Berkuts and other enemy fighters were approaching them with the intention of stopping them. His head set toned as he acquired a radar lock and fired one of his two RAAM's.
The missile left the hardpoint and streaked towards its target, an Artemis SU-47 which soon became a fiery ball of scrap metal while the other fighters each launched a missile of their own taking out several enemy fighters. "All pilots, engage the enemy. Stick close to your wingman and protect each other." RAF Wing Commander Jay Harris said over the radio from the cockpit of his Typhoon.
A course of 'roger's and 'yes sirs' was heard over the radio and all pilots broke off and began to engage the enemy fighters.
(Rendezvous Ace Combat 5 OST starts)
What began was a World War 1 style melee with pilots on both sides putting months of training and combat experience to what they called the ultimate test of their skills. Taking the lead, Powell lined up his gunsight on an enemy SU-27 and proceeded to fill the enemy plane full of holes. A burst of 20mm cannon fire sent the enemy fighter into a death roll where it then exploded into numerous pieces in mid-air.
He then spotted a TIE fighter maneuvering behind a Chile F-5 trying to get a kill shot. Banking hard to right, Powell got behind it before Vito fired one of his MIG's R-73 missiles before he pitched his aircraft down avoiding the debris from the destroyed fighter.
"Nice shot." Powell complimented his wingman before he fired his last RAAM at a Tri-Fighter which was preparing to fire its discord missiles. The RAAM slammed into the droid fighter, sending bits of metal and circuity falling down to the ground below.
"Thanks, Comrade." Vito replied before several cannon rounds flew past his cockpit. Looking back, he spotted an enemy F-22 had him in gun range as was trying to shoot him down. Vito banked hard to the left, pulling the stick into his gut circling around the enemy fighter and filled that enemy full of holes. The enemy Raptor plummeted to the ground below before.
"Galm team. We got Vultures going for the Strike Eagles. Intercept them, quickly!" one of their fellow pilots called out. The two pilots soon turned their aircraft towards the direction of the Strike Eagles and armed their missiles. Quickly they got on the six o'clock of several North Korean MIG 21bis's and each fired a single missile. Their missiles slammed into two of the enemy MIG's and forced the others to break off their attack, turn around and started to close the gap between their attackers. Just as the enemy MIG's were in gun range, a pair of Mandalorian Fang Fighters blasted the enemy MIG's out of the skies before they broke off and went after a pair of enemy MIG-29's. Like the 21's, the 29's were downed by the cannons of the Mandalorian fighters before they went after a formation of TIE Interceptors.
"Those are some impressive fighters." Powell commented before he fired an AIM-7 at a Vulture that had just shot down an allied MIG-29. The Vulture was soon reduced to a falling wreck and Nathan soon got behind another enemy fighter, an enemy SU-35 and armed one of his AIM-9s. He hit the fire button, but to his surprise the missile just dropped to the ground below, forcing him to arm another AIM-9. This one streaked towards the target, but at the last second missed the target, only to slam into an enemy E-767 AWACS aircraft.
"Shit!" he cursed and was about to arm another one of his missiles when the same SU-35 he tried to shoot down got his tail. 30mm cannon rounds flew past his canopy and would have certainly killed him had an X-Wing flew past him and destroyed the attacking aircraft. "Thanks!" he called to the pilot of the starfighter who saluted him before pulling away and shot down several TIE fighters.
Nathan then prepared to arm another one of his missiles, but he soon found that his missile firing system had malfunctioned and he could no longer use his missiles. "Vito, missiles are a no go." He said and hit a button on his controls, dropping his missiles down to the earth below, where much to his surprise streaked towards several droid fighters, destroying them.
"I'm Winchester on missiles!" Nathan shouted before a barrage of laser fire from the front flew past his cockpit. A single TIE interceptor and a SU-47 were barreling towards him at full speed. Rather than fire his guns, Powell dived down to the ground below, getting the fighters to follow him towards the ground. Vito followed them and fired two of his missiles destroying the attackers on his tail.
Nathan than pulled his stick into his gut, leveling out his aircraft before he could slam into the desert below. Normally, the Texas pilot would have climbed back up to join the ongoing dogfight, but a pair of Scarab Fighters had quickly gotten on the tail of the two pilots which meant they couldn't maneuver as well as they could in open skies. Not only that, but the two were just two hundred feet above the ground and if they made a mistake, it would be their last.
"Let's play chicken with these trashcans!" Nathan suggested to his wingman.
"Good idea, Comrade." The Russian replied and kicked in his afterburners getting ahead of his wingman and leading one of the Scarabs with him. Vito soon pulled a one eighty and flew towards his wingman with the Scarab still on his tail. As the two closed the gap, the pilots broke off and the two droid fighters slammed into each other.
"EAT THAT YOU SCRAP HEAPS!" Nathan shouted and started to climb back into the air. Vito soon followed him and soon rejoined the ongoing dogfight. Without his missiles, Nathan had to use his guns. Normally, the F15C carried nine-hundred and forty rounds for its single cannon, but since it was given an extra cannon, all the F15C's now carried twenty-four thousand rounds for their cannons.
Nathan soon spotted a pair of enemy MIG-31's targeting a group of ARC-170's. The ARC's shields had been knocked out and they were now vulnerable to the enemy's missiles and cannon. Lining the nose of his fighter behind one of the 31's, Nathan pulled the trigger and fired a three second burst, sending one of the enemies 31's into a death roll, falling to the ground. The second MIG-31 didn't get a chance to react before the tail gun on one of the ARC-170's shot down the last 31, which exploded in midair.
A radio transmission from the Strike Eagles indicated that they had reached the target area and now started to drop their bombs and fire their missiles. Through out the city, a series of explosions erupted from below indicating the destruction of the targets.
"Strike Leader to all points. Objective has been completed. We will now commence strafing enemy positions in the city below. Armor is cleared hot to enter the city." One of the F15E pilots said over the radio. Both Nathan and Vito heard this and proceeded to attack the remaining enemy fighters. To the enemy, it appeared that the Galm Team from the Belkan War had come to life and was now kicking some serious ass.
(End OST)
While the fighter pilots were dealing with the enemy air power, back down in the city Bo, Vaer, Lucia, Koylar and Garrod were pinned down by a squad of enemy soldiers who had them pinned down with a heavy machine gun. Taking cover behind a wrecked Toyota pickup truck, Bo watched as Angelo and Alex moved up to another wrecked civilian vehicle before they began to lay down suppressing fire allowing the Mandalorian armor wearing warriors to move up to another piece of cover.
Having used their charges earlier on a camouflaged anti-armor gun, Bo had used her jetpack and got the location of several enemy M163 VADS mobile anti-aircraft guns. Since they were self-propelled guns, they were difficult to cut off. However, once they found the guns the third time Bo, Lucia and Vaer fired the rockets from their jetpacks and blew the treads off the enemy vehicles. Now the vehicles were immobilized, but still harassing allied aircraft.
Fortunately for them, the vehicles were right ahead of them but several platoons of enemies had arrived to try and fix the vehicles before they could be destroyed. Several enemies were gunned down by the seven-man team, but more and more hostiles continued to approach their position. For a moment, it seemed that they were about to be over run but thankfully, the Division agents who were dropped in the city just a few hours earlier had arrived.
Several small spheres rolled directly towards the Black Tusk and droid forces from behind which then exploded upon getting close enough to the enemy forces. This was followed a series of gunshots from the rear, each of which was a clean headshot on all their targets. From a building directly behind the enemy position, Tanya discarded the spent magazine and quickly loaded a new one into her PGM while Daniel called out targets for her while picking off any targets he could get with his own weapon. "Tanya here, Overwatch position established." She said into her radio before resuming her attack on the enemy.
"Solid copy. Keep it up and throw another two seeker mines." Cesar said into his radio, loading a fresh magazine into his M4. "Isac, how much longer till reinforcements arrive?" The agent asked into his smart watch.
"Reinforcements will arrive in three minutes." The Intelligent System Analytic Computer or Isac, responded. Cesar than whipped out his ballistic shield and pushed forwards, firing his rifle in bursts while moving to a nearby café. Once he arrived, he threw his shield down and began to fire at the enemy forces allowing the Claudia and the others to move up. While they moved up, he pulled the pins on two of his smoke grenades and threw them directly in front of the enemy machine gun. The grenades detonated, creating a thick cloud of smoke allowing the others to exit the café from the rear and flank the enemy allowing Koylar and Garrod to fire their rockets at the enemy self-propelled artillery and knocking them out just as several allied F22's streaked over the city chasing down several enemy SU-35's.
"Come on, we need to link up with Jess and the others." Cesar said as they were quickly joined by several M1 Abrams, T-90, Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 MBT's. Hitching a ride on the tanks, the weary warriors head off to meet up with the others.
While this was going on, Jess and her group were having a more difficult time. They had eliminated their targets and were about to meet up with the others when they got a call from Lennox and Epps who were already in the city. From the transmission, Lennox and his brother in arms had linked up with Jackson, Griggs, Vasquez, Foley, Ramirez, Dunn, Taylor, Jacobs and Morgan who smuggled themselves into the Lone Star State to raid an enemy supply convoy and deliver it to their forces in Denver. Unfortunately, they encounter stiff resistance and most of the men they brought were killed in the failed attempt to capture the supply convoy.
Now they, plus Jess, Grace, Gunner, Faye, Thomas, Marie and their Clone Commando's were hunkered down in a two-story bank that was cleared out by the enemy and fighting to stay alive. Most of their explosives were used up on the enemy artillery they destroyed and they had only a few hand grenades left so rather than waste them, the soldiers saved their hand grenades for enemies like Destroyer Droids.
Faye, Jess, Grace, Gunner and Marie were on the second floor, the three women using their sniper rifles to pick off enemy units from long distances while Maire and Gunner used their rifles to mop up any they missed. On the first floor, Thomas and the others had set up a few claymores in several places in the event the enemy breached the front of the bank. They did so, and numerous steel balls flew into enemy soldiers and droids. Ducking behind a desk, Thomas loaded the last of his shells for his 1887. A blaster bolt whizzed past his head and hit the painting behind him before another blaster bolt slammed into the desk he was using for cover.
Chambering his shotgun, the second oldest McCall popped out of cover and fired his shotgun taking out three True Sons shotgunners from ten meters. The last round fell to the ground and he was forced to discard his shotgun and draw his pistols. Dunn, Ramirez and Foley fired their own rifles picking off a few hostiles while Griggs lobbed a droid popper which was given to him by Marie at a few battle droids. The grenade short-circuited the droids but left the soldier wide open. A blaster bolt hit him right in the shoulder blade causing him to drop his machine gun before an enemy bullet went clean through his left leg.
Despite the pain coursing through him, the staff sergeant crawled back to the others before he pulled out his pistol and began to return fire. Another bullet hit him in arm, causing him to drop his pistol before Vasquez laid down covering fire and allowed Jackson to patch up their ally as best he could.
As for Darmen and his brothers, the clone commandos were making quick work of the enemies despite being low ammo for their weapons. As Darmen fired the last round from his rifles anti-armor attachment, reinforcements soon arrived and forced the enemy to retreat. "Back ups here!" the commando shouted before the retreating enemies were soon cut down by one of their own. An enemy Humvee had mowed down their allies and when Thomas saw the scene, he knew who it was.
"Barnsby!" he growled.
Paul Barnsby, once a Texas Ranger before he was relieved of duty after numerous reports of killing wounded criminals and harassing Mexican-Americans exited the mini-gun of the Humvee and walked towards his enemies, dressed in a True Sons commander uniform. "So, it looks like we finally meet again, McCall." Barnsby said amused. "I'd thought for sure you'd be dead along with the rest of these traitors. I guess I should count my lucky stars, that I'd be the one who'd get to kill you." He added.
"You really think you're doing a noble thing working with these shitheads. Open your eyes, you're just being used, then again, I don't think you care. You'd just kill anyone you can." Thomas answered, spitting on the ground while William arrived and began to tend to Grigg's wounds.
"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I'll help bring this country back to its former glory. Nothing you say or do will change that." Barnsby declared, his hand reaching for his sidearm. Seeing this, Thomas reached for his own sidearm and the two drew their pistols. Thomas was quicker and shot the former rangers weapon out of his hand.
"Lets settle this like men." Thomas said, throwing down his pistols and raised his fists. Barnsby did the same and lunged towards the McCall.
(Eyes of the Ranger)
Barnsby tried to land an uppercut to Thomas's jaw but the McCall blocked the strike, spun around and landed a kick right to Barnsby's face followed by another kick to the man's stomach which pushed him back a few feet.
Catching his breath, the ex-ranger drew a knife and attempted to stab and punch Thomas, only to have his attacks miss and get both a fist to the face and a kick to the stomach in return. "You really should have paid attention in hand-to-hand combat, chickenshit." Thomas spat before disarming Barnsby of his knife. Thomas didn't let up his attack and back handed the enemy before delivering a strong kick to enemies' face, sending them to the ground.
(End song)
"You know they say 'when you're in Texas look behind you. Cause that's where the rangers, gonna be.' I may not be a Texas Ranger," Thomas began, picking up his sidearm and aimed it at the former ranger. "But someone like you, you're a disgrace to the name." He finished, holstering his pistol while clones picked up the knocked-out enemy and took him away.
"I almost thought you were going to kill him." William admitted.
"That sonofabitch deserves to die. But I'm not the one who will kill him. That's up to those above my paygrade." Thomas joked as Ray soon joined them.
"Just got a call from the kid. Denver's been liberated and the enemies pulling back. We did it, Texas is free." Ray said, removing his helmet.
"Then we will need to keep the momentum up. If we keep advancing at this pace, we'll end the war in just a few weeks." Kota said when he arrived. Kota was wrong, but he just didn't know it yet.
And complete. The McCall brothers have reunited, Texas was freed and The Division has arrived. Sorry it took a while, I was a little caught up in playing Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Red Dead 2, Breakpoint and taking care of a few things before the coming blizzard.
For those who live on the east coast of North America, hope you're all staying warm cause the snow is starting to come down and let's pray that we don't have a repeat of winter from 2015, that was hell. Anyways, next chapter will see the return of someone we haven't seen since Europe. As always, please read and review and I will see you all next time.