*Before we start, I would like to say I changed the name of the girl I mentioned in the first chapter from Emily to Sarah, so please don't be confused…

Part 3 – First Battle of Memphis

It was about a five-minute drive to get to the ferry terminal where two men dressed in a gray hoodies, jeans, sneakers, and had bandanas covering their mouths.

They were both carrying 9mm handguns, and didn't look in a mood to talk.

"Options," Amos asked.

"Options," Ben asked, "Do they look like they want to talk?"

"I'm going to talk to them," Chloe said as she put his HK416 away, "Keep me covered."

"This is a bad idea," Ben said.

"Trust me on this one," Chloe said, "I'm going in."

Ben exhaled strongly before looking at Amos, "I don't like this," he said.

"She knows what she's doing," Amos said before raising his Ares-16, "Just in case."

Chloe approached the two men with her hands raised, "What do you want," one of them asked as he raised his pistol to her.

"Take it easy," the other said as he walked up to her, "What can we do for you?"

"We need to get across the river," Chloe said.

"The river is restricted territory," he said, "Look, if I were you, I'd turn around, and head back to wherever you came from."

"Look, I have to cross the river," Chloe said, "My daughter's in that city."

"Our families are in there," he said, "Look, you need to go before…" he then noticed the ISAC brick on her shoulder, "DIVISION," he then raised his pistol to her, but before he could do anything, a small hole opened just above his right eye, and the back of his head exploded in a shower of blood and fragments of skull.

His pistol fell from his grip, and he staggered backwards before falling flat on his back, dead.

The second saw his friend fall, and raised his to fire, only for a line of bloody explosions to tear their way across his chest.

Ben and Amos came walking out from behind their cover to see Chloe turn around to look at them, "You two do realize you could have killed me," she asked.

"Wouldn't happen," Ben said as he hung his rifle over his shoulder, "We're professional," he then walked past the bodies toward the ferry, "Let's move."

As they approached the ferry, Amos's first stop was the engine bay underneath the main seating area which was covered in a heavy pad lock and chain.

"Well that's a small obstacle," Amos said.

"I got this," Ben said as he put his rifle up to the lock, "Shield your eyes," they turned away, putting their hands over their eyes, and as he pulled the trigger, the padlock damn near exploded.

"Nice one," Amos said as he removed the chain, and walked inside to get a good look at the engine.

"You take the lower deck," Ben said, "I'm gonna go up high."

Ben proceeded up the stairs to the top sitting area where he had a decent view of the area around them.

"I'm in position," Chloe said over her headset.

"Same here," Ben said as he took a look around the area with his scope, "Scope's clear, any activity down there?"

"Negative" Chloe said, "Everything's green."

"Amos," Ben said, "How's it looking down there?"

"Engine's in pretty decent shape," Amos said, "The sparkplugs are a little worn, so they need to be replaced, and the oil inside is old and needs some fresh oil to run properly."

"Don't suppose you have any of that in your pocket," Ben asked.

"There were some spares in the HMMWV," Amos said as he walked out of the engine bay, "I'll go get what we need."

It was then that Ben felt a buzzing in his pocket where he kept his phone, as he pulled it out, he saw it was from Sarah, "I have a call coming in," he said, "Give me a moment."

"Go ahead," Chloe said, "I've got Amos covered."

Ben opened the call, "Sarah," he asked.

"Hey," Sarah said over the other line, "I've been meaning to call. I wasn't sure I should."

"I'm really glad you did," Ben said as he put his rifle down on the seats in front of him, "How's James?"

"He's fine, he's enjoying his new school," Sarah said, and he likes hanging around his grandparents."

"Does he miss me," Ben asked.

"We both do," Sarah said, "It's not easy for either of us."

"Me neither," Ben said, "I know I haven't always been there for you, or James."

"I know Military life is hard," Sarah said, "Especially being on standby. I wish we could have worked out what happened before we decided to separate."

"So do I," Ben said, "Sarah, I know I don't say this enough but I'm sorry about what happened."

"So am I," Sarah said, "I know we've had our ups and downs, but I want to try and work it out. I think we should get together and talk. This weekend?"

"That's be great, really great," Ben said, "But this weekend is…"

"No," Sarah said, "This is a bad idea."

"No, Sarah it's the best idea you've ever had," Ben said.

"As opposed to all my other ideas which haven't been so good," Sarah said.

"Come on Sarah," Ben said, "Don't talk like that. Look, I had been meaning to call you, but I got a call from the Pentagon yesterday. I've been ordered back to duty."

"What," Sarah asked.

"It's ok, it's ok," Ben said, "I've been asked to assist the JTF with the situation in New Orleans. Non-combat role, outside the city coordinating air traffic. I won't be back up north for a while."

"How long would that be," Sarah asked.

"We don't know," Ben said, "They're saying possibly a few weeks if we're lucky. Sarah, I want to work things out with you. Look, I'll give you a video call when we get set-up, ok?"

"Ok," Sarah said, "Ben, please be careful."

"I promise," Ben said, "Tell James I love him."

"I will," Sarah said.

"And Sarah," Ben said, "I love you as well," he then looked up, and saw something he didn't expect to see, "Listen, I'll call you tonight, ok? Bye."

He then hung up the phone before Sarah could say, "I love you too."

Amos walked back to the HMMWV, negating the fact he left his Ares-16 behind, and very quickly pulled the components out of the trunk before Ben came over his headset, "Amos, get to cover, now," he said as he put his phone away, and snatched up his rifle, "Three contacts twenty yards out."

"Friendly," Amos asked as he jumped behind the HMMWV.

"Unknown," Ben said as he examined them with the scope of his rifle to see they were carrying small arms, "Weapons confirmed, weapons confirmed."

"Weapons," Amos asked.

"Unknown AK variants," Ben said, "They are dressed the same as the ones we encountered earlier."

"I have eyes on," Chloe said as she rested her 416 against the side of the entrance to the ferry.

"Amos, keep hidden," Ben said as he adjusted his scope, "I'm going to fire a warning shot."

As he squeezed the trigger, the bullet hit the ground not inches from one of their feet.

They looked around to see where that shot came from before one of them pointed at Ben who cycled the bolt in his rifle.

As they raised their rifles, Ben's next shot was much higher than the first one he sent their way: center-mass in the middle hostile's chest, passing in-between his fourth and fifth rib, and spun him sideways from the impact.

The others raised their rifles, and fired: their rifles were on semi-auto so they were able to control the recoil, but they still missed Ben who ducked down to avoid getting shot.

Ben racked the bolt on his rifle as one of them ran towards the boat, and seeing his comrades dead at the foot of the entrance sent him into a rage that caused him not to be so cautious as he ran right into the aim of Chloe's HK416 which drilled four 5.56 rounds into his chest.

The final went to reloaded his rifle, only for Amos to gone prone next to the HMMWV, drawing his Glock, and shooting five bullets at his legs, three of which took his legs out from underneath, giving Ben a chance to finish him off.

Amos holstered his Glock, and ran back to the engine room where he set to work replacing the spark plugs, and pouring in new oil.

Five minutes later he walked out, and into his mic said, "That should do it," before walking to the driver's room, after pressing the starter button, the engine sputtered, but didn't start, he then pressed it again, more of a sputter, but still no start, he pressed it once more, and the engine roared to life, "IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!"

"Good work," Ben said, "I'm going to call in the cavalry," he pulled out the flare gun, loaded an orange charge, and fired it directly upwards, hoping they could see it from there.

"It'll be a few minutes for them to reach us," Chloe said.

Amos then came out of the entrance to the top deck of the ferry, "You summoned the rest of our troops," Amos asked.

"Yep," Ben said as he sat down facing the direction they would be coming from.

"You know," Amos said as he sat across from Ben, "I heard a little bit of your conversation on the phone earlier. I wasn't eavesdropping, I swear."

"I didn't think you were," Ben said, "What of it?"

"Sarah," Amos asked, "Ex-girlfriend."

"Wife," Ben said as he reached into his pocket, retrieved his wallet, and handed it to Amos.

The picture was of Ben, back when he was a young buck in the Army because the rank on his sleeves were of a Corporal, the woman in the wedding dress was a young woman about five-foot-four, she had blonde hair, a paler skin tone, and brown eyes.

"I didn't know you were married," Amos said, "She's beautiful."

"Yea, she is," Ben said, "We started dating in high school, and got married just before she went off to Medical School."

"You were in the Army by then," Amos asked.

"Joined at 17," Ben said, "Made sniper straight out of basic, and was deployed not soon after which put a slight straight on our relationship. Then after we got married, not being around put more of a strain. Then along came James, and that's when things really got bad."

"Who's James," Amos asked, Ben went into his wallet, and pulled out another picture, handing it to Amos: the picture was of him and a little boy about four or five years of age who wore a Power Rangers tee-shirt, a pair of jean shorts, and he was being carried on Ben's shoulders along some kind of boardwalk, "Ah, he's your son."

"Our last family trip," Ben said, "Back when me and Sarah spoke to each other instead of yelling when James was in the room."

"Being an military family is always troubling," Amos said, "It always hurts when you have to leave at a moment's notice, and leave everything behind."

"That's why we split up," Ben said, "She hadn't been in a relationship like mine before so it was a foreign concept, having to leave one's family to protect one's country."

"The lesser of two evils," Amos said.

"I'd hate to break up your conversation boys," Chloe said, "But we have troops incoming."

Ben looked up to see that the JTF vehicles full of their fellow agents was heading their way.

Amos handed Ben his pictures back, which Ben put in his wallet and back in his pocket, and the two of them grabbed their weapons, and walked down to the entrance to see the thirty-plus agents walking up the ramp onto the ferry.

"Your handy work," Darius asked as he pointed over his shoulder at the dead soldiers.

"Our handy work," Ben said, "It was a team-effort."

"Indeed," Darius said as he put his hand on Ben's shoulder, "But you should know now that I'm making you my second. I give the orders to the agents, and you give the orders to the squads in the field. Welcome to my world now, Agent Jaeger."

Guess what happens next…