The Clock Tower

by Archive keeper

After a series of vivid visions of a world at war with itself, Elia and the rest of the 501st are transported to the MW universe where they have to fight to survive the invasion of America. They team up with Metal Team and the 141 in order to find a way home however nothing is as it seems as the fate of both worlds may be tied to the will of a single man re posted with permission

12. Chapter 12 Queen Takes Rook

It is finally here the last chapter of the MW2 story arc. i have to say this was the chapter i was most anticipating to write as it is by far my largest and most action packed story thus far. oh before anyone asks the S-70 is the export/civilian version of the UH-60 anyways so yeah this is my next chapter i really hope you enjoy it :)

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Queen Takes Rook

The Outskirts of Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen

03:45 Local Time

The Task Force had split into three main groups. The first group led by Captain Price was approaching the mercenary base from the west. The second group led by Sandman was moving in from the east; and finally the third group that was to provide the distraction was heading towards the base from the valley below. Eila checked her weapon and made sure the safety was off and she had a full magazine. After she was satisfied that her weapon was in shape she fiddled around with these weird goggles that apparently would allow her to see in the dark called "NVGs" she pulled them over her eyes and turned them on. Everything suddenly had a green tint to it but was now perfectly visible. Eila looked to her team; other than herself and the Britannia (sorry British) commando Captain Price, Sanya was also with them. Team two consisted of Sandman, Frost, Minna, and Mio; while group three had Erica, Gertrude and Perrine working the mortar; Shirley and Hanna operating some kind of missile launchers and finally, Soap, Grinch and Lynnette would provide sniper support with Yoshika "spotting targets" for Lynnette. In the truck they had driven in with, Francesca and Nikolai were providing intelligence via a robot plane and via "hacking" whatever the hell that meant. They approached the slope going down the valley towards the base. The complex below was about seven hundred meters down and a kilometer and a half away from them. Captain Price looked to Eila and Sanya.

"You ever BASE jump into a hot LZ before?" He asked them Sanya and Eila both shook their heads.

"No closest we have ever come to this is when we had to take off in our strikers when the base was under attack." Sanya replied to Captain Price who nodded.

"Ok well follow my lead then. Sandman, are you in position?" Price asked over the radio. After a few seconds The American commando responded.

"We are approaching the slope now hold thirty." Sandman stated. After a few seconds Sandman spoke again. "Ok we are in position now, awaiting the attack orders." Sandman stated.

"Ok hold there; Soap, Grinch and Bishop are you in position?" The leader of the Task Force inquired of the sniper teams.

"This is Soap I am in position now waiting for orders." Soap replied, then Grinch spoke.

"This is Grinch I had to take out a patrol along the way I will be in position in three mikes over." The American Delta Force Operative spoke to Captain Price. A brief laugh came from Soap.

"Oy, you got spotted? You are getting sloppy in your old age." Soap teased the American.

"Laugh it up chuckles. No I didn't get spotted they were just in the way." Grinch chuckled back. Then Lynnette spoke.

"Captain, Yoshika and I are moving into position now we should be ready in a few minutes." Lynne informed Captain Price who nodded.

"Good show people. Barkhorn is your team ready?" Captain Price asked Barkhorn who took a few seconds to reply.

"We are setting up now give us a few minutes." Gertrude replied to him.

"Ok, Yeager, Marseille what is your situation?" Price asked the two witches.

"We are in position now and have the targets in sight waiting your orders." Shirley said to the Captain.

"Great. Nikolai and Francesca what is the situation." Price asked the final members of the Task Force.

"I am in their network now but I am having trouble hacking their communications it is heavily encrypted and will take too long to crack we are going to have to go without being able to listen in on their communications." Nikolai informed Price.

"Fuck, ok well as long as you can hack their power supply I guess we can make do. Francesca is that drone operational?" Price asked.

"Sure is Captain it will be over their base in just a few minutes." Francesca told him.

"Good girl, ok people so we make our move when everyone is in position got it?" Price told the group. Everyone sounded off saying they understood. Suddenly Eila heard some numbers in her radio and then a voice.

"Eila over here." The mysterious voice told her as numbers quietly played throughout her radio.

"What?" Eila looked behind her and saw some movement between some of the trees. Eila readied her weapon and silently moved into the forest.

"Eila where the fuck are you going!?" Price hissed to her. Eila looked behind her briefly and held up a finger in front of her mouth to signal him to be quiet. She then further went into the forest following the sound of rustling leaves. Eila briefly thought about hunting in the woods with her father back in Suomus. After a few minutes Eila came into a clearing, standing there were two male figures stood near about a half dozen Shadow Company corpses.

"Shit what the fuck?" Eila stated in a startled voice. Eila raised her weapon and pointed it at one of the men. Just before she pulled the trigger she recognized one of the men. It was the man who rescued her from that pile of rubble back in DC. The man she knew knelt down to one of the corpses and pulled off a small device of some kind and tossed it to Eila who caught it.

"Eila that device contains the codes to Shadow Company's radio frequency. You should be able to use it to hack into their communications." The Russian man told her. He was still dressed in the same 1940s era uniform that she had last seen him in. The other man looked much younger than the Russian and he appeared to be more western than his partner.

"Thanks, wait why are you helping me?" Eila asked the Russian who smirked.

"I told you already Eila, we have the same enemy." He told her. Eila lifted an eyebrow.

"Ok well why didn't you tell me that General Shepherd was going to betray the Task Force?" Eila inquired. The Westerner frowned and then spoke.

"We are not omnipotent we can't see the future like you can we can only get a vague idea of what will happen next. Granted we knew that Shepherd couldn't be trusted but we didn't foresee him making a move against the Task Force and the U.S. government." The Westerner, who judging by his accent was an American replied to her.

"Ok fair enough; but who are you two anyway and why should I trust you?" Eila queried of them.

"Ah well perhaps we should introduce ourselves then. My name is Viktor Reznov and my friend over there is named Alex Mason. As for why you should trust us well frankly you are just going to have to; but Isabella Marquez can vouch for us when you rescue her. Speaking of which make sure she stays alive she will be your best bet with finding Makarov." Viktor told her. Eila thought to herself Great that just brings up more questions than it answered. Viktor seemed to notice this and spoke. "Look I know we aren't very forthcoming but you are just going to have to trust us in time everything that we have done will make sense to you." Reznov told her. Before she could reply Eila heard some rustling in the woods behind her. Eila whipped around to see Captain Price and Sanya coming out of the woods.

"Shit Eila you did this all by yourself?" Captain Price asked as he looked upon the fallen Shadow Company patrol. Eila looked behind her to see that the two men had vanished. And coincidently the sound of numbers over the radio had ceased as well. Eila turned back to Price and tossed him the device.

"Here this should let us listen in on Shadow Company." Eila told him. Price examined the device before speaking.

"An encryption key eh? Well we should be able to put this to good use." Price messed with the device and suddenly over the radio Eila heard the voices of the enemy mercenaries.

"Disciple this is Oxide 1-6 we are coming in from our patrol over." One of the mercenaries told the other.

"Oxide 1-6 this is Disciple we will have another patrol out to take your place shortly. Meet them at the main gate and let them know what you found over." Disciple (presumably their base controller) told them.

"Roger that we will be at the gate shortly over." Oxide replied.

"Avatar 1-3 this is Disciple you haven't reported anything in the last thirty minutes, what is your situation over?" Disciple asked one of the mercenary patrols. After a few seconds of silence Disciple spoke again. "Avatar 1-3 come in over." Disciple asked again. Eila's Heart sank; Avatar must have been the patrol that Reznov and Mason took out. Then over the radio a voice spoke out.

"This is Avatar 1-3 sorry the mountains must have interfered with our radios everything is all clear over." It was Alex Mason.

"Roger that continue your patrol." Disciple told Alex who shut the radio off. Price then spoke.

"Ok let's head back to the cliff alright." He told them as he began to walk back to the cliff where they were a few minutes ago. Eila turned to Sanya and whispered in her ear.

"Hey couldn't you listen in on radio waves with your magic?" Eila asked her. Sanya nodded.

"I can but I tried listening in on Shadow Company's radios but all I got was static." Sanya told her. Eila nodded.

"Hey are you ready for this? I think this might be the most dangerous mission we have undertaken since we got to this world." Eila asked her girlfriend who nodded.

"Yes I want to finish this tonight." Sanya told her. Eila nodded and continued on towards the cliff. Eila thought to herself that tonight was going to be a very long night.

Outskirts of Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flight Lieutenant Gertrude Barkhorn

03:58 Local time

They had just finished setting up their mortar and had opened up the box of 120mm shells from the crate that Erica and Perrine had been carrying. Gertrude booted up the targeting computer and plugged it into the mortar. After a few seconds the computer was on and linked to the drone feed. Francesca had the plate shaped craft looking at the main gate with "thermal vision" all of the mercenaries were glowing white making them easy to see amongst the grey background color. Gertrude then listened in on some of the mercenaries conversations.

"Hey Sarge what would you be doing if you hadn't joined Shadow Company?" One of the mercenaries asked his squad leader.

"I don't know I'd probably be dead, or in jail." The sergeant replied.

"Yeah, same here." The other mercenary replied. What a bunch of sacks of shit. Gertrude thought to herself. Gertrude then spoke to Lucchini.

"Lucchini the shells are laser guided so I need you to point the camera on the drone at the highest priority targets you see got it?" Gertrude said to her. After a few seconds Francesca replied.

"You Bettcha!" She said enthusiastically, as she pointed the camera at the cluster of a dozen Shadow Company mercenaries by the main gate. Lucchini then turned the laser designator on and the targeting computer gave Gertrude the ready to fire signal.

"Ok Captain Price waiting for your word." Gertrude told their leader who waited a moment before replying.

"Nikolai cut the power we don't want Shepherd escaping when the fireworks start." Captain Price said to the Russian.

"Got it; shutting the power off now." Nikolai stated. A few moments later the lights in the base shut off. Captain Price then spoke.

"Ok Gertrude, light the candle." Price told her. Erica grabbed one of the shells and dropped it down the tube. The mortar shell rocketed out of the mortar and Gertrude watched on the computer as the mercenaries below first looked up to the sky then in vain tried to scatter as the shell burst into two dozen sub-munitions one hundred meters above them. The explosives rained down on them blowing them to pieces. Lucchini moved the drone camera over to one of the watch towers and turned the laser on. Erica dropped another shell down and Gertrude watched as the shell demolished the tower, sending chunks of masonry all over the place. Gertrude saw in the base that the mercenaries scrambled to get into defensive positions.

"They know we are here now." Erica said to no one in particular.

"No shit; just keep the shells coming." Gertrude said to her. Lucchini directed the camera over a group of two dozen Shadow Company mercenaries. Erica dropped another shell into the mortar and it screamed towards its target. The mercenaries scattered in all directions to avoid the shell but for most of them it was futile. The shell burst open and showered death over the entire group. When the dust settled about twenty of them were left on the ground blown to pieces by the shell. The survivors writhed on the ground in pain.

"Good kills keep hitting them I see a couple of SUVs coming out of the main facility hit them before they move into position." Captain Price told them.

"Roger that." Lucchini said she moved the drone over to the SUVs and turned the designator on. The shell left the tube and showered the trucks in explosives turning them into steel confetti and flames. Gertrude almost felt bad for the mercenaries who had to endure this bombardment. Almost, but not quite as she watched another shell demolish a sandbag gun emplacement on one of the buildings which promptly collapsed in on itself killing whoever was inside to take shelter. The drone then looked over to the heliport where a dozen men were running to their landed helicopters getting ready to get into the sky.

"Shirley the helicopters are getting ready to take off they are all yours." Gertrude told the Liberion witch.

"Roger that Hanna and I are targeting them now." Shirley replied to her. Gertrude wanted to watch to see what these fancy missile launchers could do but instead asked Francesca to turn the drone back to their main targets at the gate. More mercenaries were leaving the main facility as the attack continued. Erica lowered another shell into the mortar and it rocketed towards its intended victims.

Outskirts of Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flight Lieutenant Charlotte E. Yeager "Shirley"

04:07 Local time

Hanna and Shirley looked at the helicopters getting ready to take off. There were about a half dozen choppers in the open some of them small and armed with machine guns and rockets and the others were larger and looked like they were meantto carry soldiers into battle. Shirley looked to Hanna and spoke.

"Hey are you ready to take your shot yet?" She asked the Karlslander who smirked.

"I was born ready Yankee." Hanna replied. Shirley nodded and crouched to get a more stable stance for the missile. Shirley looked down the sight of the FGM-199 Lance FAEGM (Fuel Air Explosive Guided Missile). On the way to their target Frost had told the two of them about the missile. Apparently it was made to be an improvement on the Javelin ATGM which was designed to take out tanks but not as well suited for destroying infantry in urban combat, which had become the bread and butter of the U.S. Army in the early years of the twenty first century. So the Lance missile was developed with the idea of using a fuel air explosive warhead to cause maximum damage to "soft" targets in the open and in built up urban areas. The missile had never been used in active combat before so Shirley and Hanna had the dubious honor to be the first people to use them in a real battle. Shirley aimed the designator at one of the larger helicopters that the mercenaries were getting into and waited for the lock on signal before firing. Once the crosshairs stopped flashing on her screen she pressed the launch stud and the missile shot out of the tube. A few moments later Hanna let her missile fire to. Shirley and Hanna watched as their missiles shot up and then descended like birds of prey on their targets. When the missiles got about five meters from the ground they let out a massive explosion that sent a shockwave of epic proportions across the heliport. The mercenaries in the open were utterly atomized by the blast and the helicopters were turned to molten scrap metal.

"Holy shit." Was all Shirley could say at the sight of the awesome power that she had just unleashed on the hapless Shadow Company mercenaries; it looked like a pair of 450kg bombs at hit the heliport but Shirley had just fired a twenty kilogram missile at the target. Hanna let out a laugh.

"Now that was fucking impressive if I do say so myself." Hanna chuckled as she tossed the launcher on the ground. Shirley nodded.

"Yeah I honestly wasn't expecting that to happen." Shirley replied as she set her launcher down as well. Hanna grabbed hold of her SCAR-L and pointed to the main gate.

"Alright enough screwing around we have to meet up at the main gate in another ten minutes for our assault into the complex itself." Hanna said to Shirley who nodded and pulled off her back the M27 IAR.

"Yeah let's kick some ass." Shirley said as she summoned her familiar and used its speed to cover the four kilometer distance to the main gate. Hanna followed suit; even though she didn't have enhanced speed as her magical ability she was still quite fast, but she probably didn't have the endurance that Shirley had for running long distances. Shirley thought that even in this rough terrain that at the speed they were going they should still be able to reach the RZ in time for the next phase of the operation.

Outskirts of Shadow Company Headquarters

Sergeant Lynnette Bishop

04:13 Local time

Lynnette Bishop looked down the scope of her M40A5 sniper rifle and sighted up her target, a pair of Shadow Company mercenaries setting up a machine gun in a dugout. Lynne put the gunner in her crosshairs and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked as the powerful 7.62mm round sped out of the barrel and smacked into her targets skull splattering his partner with his brains as his head exploded. Lynnette winced at the damage she had inflicted, she still couldn't get used to seeing the results of her deadly work. Even through the green tint of the night vision scope things were still messy. Lynne quickly pulled back the bolt and fired again at the remaining mercenary coring him splattering the wall with his blood. Lynne noticed that Yoshika seemed to flinch with every shot she took. Lynne hated having to snipe in front of Yoshika she never knew what Yoshika was thinking when she was watching Lynnette use her sniper rifle. For all she knew Yoshika thought of Lynnette as a terrible person because she had to kill in cold blood. Hell for that matter Lynnette herself loathed the thought that she was a killer now; but it was something that she couldn't do anything about now, once she took a life she couldn't take it back they were dead by her hand. Lynne pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she scanned for another target, eventually finding a Shadow Company officer directing his troops to get into cover as Gertrude rained more shells down on them. Lynnette took aim and fired again this time the round dropped more than she thought it would, blowing off the officer's right leg. Lynnette saw the officer go down screaming in pain. Her stomach turned at her mistake seeing the suffering that she had accidently inflicted on someone. She aimed for his chest and fired again this time impacting center mass. Lynnette lined up another shot on a mercenary with a sniper rifle setting up on the roof she fired a round impacting his square in the face. The bullet seemed to cause his face to collapse in on itself as the bullet went through the bridge of his nose. Grinch then spoke over the radio as Lynnette began to reload her rifle.

"Lynnette there is a team of mercenaries setting up a mortar near the destroyed tower I can't get a clear shot on them. I need you to take them out." Grinch told her. Lynne looked for the target but was unable to find it.

"Grinch I can't see the target." Lynnette replied. Yoshika leaned out from the tree she was hiding behind and looked through a set of night vision binoculars.

"Lynne I see them they are over there." Yoshika said as she pointed towards the mortar team. Lynnette used Yoshika's arm to direct her shot eventually she saw the mortar team. The mercenaries had set up the mortar and were getting ready to fire a round into the forest. Lynne aimed for the box of shells and fired. A second later the bullet impacted the shells causing them to detonate with tremendous force blowing all three of the mercenaries away. Lynne looked up to Yoshika and spoke.

"Thanks but you don't have to spot targets for me if you don't want to." Lynne said to her. Yoshika shook her head.

"No it's alright I know we have to do this." Yoshika said as she looked back into the binoculars. "There on the roof of that U shaped building they are setting up some machine guns." Yoshika said as she pointed to a building. Lynne saw the two mercenaries they were both armed with MK.46 machine guns and began to fire into the forest hoping to hit someone. Lynne sighted the one on the left and fired hitting him in the forehead with the same gory results as before. She then chambered the next round and fired at the other mercenary who had gotten up and made a run for the stairs. Lynne's round impacted him square in the back throwing him down the stairs. Even if by some miracle he survived the gunshot the fall down a flight of stairs would have killed him. Gertrude then spoke over the radio.

"Alright everyone this is our last shell." She said to the Task Force.

"Roger that make it count. Team one and team two get ready to make the jump." Captain Price said to the assault teams.

"Understood we are ready and waiting." Sandman said to Price. Lynne sighted a sniper running to get to a vantage point. She fired her last round at him catching him in the side. He fell to the ground in a spray of blood and didn't get up. Lynne set down her rifle and picked up her FAMAS that she had set beside her. She looked up to Yoshika and spoke.

"Ok after Gertrude takes her last shot we are going to move up to the main gate are you ready?" Lynnette asked her friend who nodded.

"Yes I am ready for this I will do whatever I can short of killing someone to help us complete our mission." Yoshika told her. Lynne smiled to her.

"Ok we are going to get through this night Yoshika I promise you." Lynnette told her.

"I know I have faith in your ability to protect me Lynne." Yoshika smiled back to her. Just then the scream of the last mortar shell roared overhead. Lynne watched as it burst into the air sending smaller explosives into its target. A crackling series of explosions could be heard putting Lynnette in the mind of popcorn of all things.

"Alright everyone it is time to make the jump. Gertrude toss a termite charge down the mortar tube so they can't use it against us. Then meet us with the rest of the assault team by the main gate. Everyone else get ready to make the jump." Captain Price spoke over the radio. Then Lynne heard Frost spoke.

"Captain Price enemy choppers approaching from the south." Frost said to Captain Price.

"How many?" Price asked the American.

"I count three; two AH-6s and one S-70 Blackhawk." Frost told him.

"Ok everyone you know what to do get your Stingers ready." Price said to them. Lynne put on her night vision goggles and saw in the distance a trio of helicopters coming. "We only have one shot at this make it count." Price said. He waited a few seconds then spoke again. "Fire now!" He shouted a second later three missiles shot out towards the helicopters. The Shadow Company choppers tried to take evasive action but to no avail. The missiles all detonated near the targeted helicopters blowing the two smaller choppers to pieces and splitting the Blackhawk in half. "Ok good kills people. Alright get ready to jump on my mark. 3…2…1… mark; go now!" Price shouted. Lynne saw them all jumping off their cliffs. Lynne looked to Yoshika and nodded. They both started to run towards the main gate.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Commander Minna Dietlinde-Wilcke

04:26 Local time

Minna dove down like an eagle; the wind blew threw her hair and the cold air stung her skin. She briefly mused that this was similar to flying in her striker except that she was always losing altitude rather than gaining any. Minna could see the facility fast approaching now about four hundred meters away. Minna looked to her left to see Mio and Sandman descending on the same approach and to her right was Frost matching pace with her. The night vision goggles gave an altitude warning as she approached the point where she was to release her chute. She waited until she was only two hundred meters from the ground then she pulled the cord. The parachute yanked against her and her descent slowed. Minna saw that most of the Shadow Company troops were focused on the main gate fighting Gertrude's team. They were completely unaware that Minna was above then. Minna pulled out a G18 machine pistol and took aim at the nearest mercenary. She pulled the trigger and a ten round burst of 9mm rounds tore through the back of her target sending him to the ground in a heap of blood. Minna pulled on one of the cords to swing to the right and land atop a one story building with a dead machine gunner on it. She pulled her legs in tight close to her chest to brace for the landing. She hit the ground with a thud and swiftly unbuckled her parachute that promptly blew away. Minna holstered her pistol and pulled off her back her MK18 CQBR and went to the edge of the building. Captain Price then spoke.

"Ok everyone on the ground… good. Alright take aim and take out any mercenaries you see." Price ordered.

"Yes Sir." Everyone said in unison. Minna took aim at a mercenary using a riot shield. He was unaware of the danger when Minna put his head in her ACOG sight and pulled the trigger three times sending three 5.56mm NATO rounds threw the back of his skull. She then turned to aim at another mercenary who looked up at her. He began to shout a warning to his comrades as she fired six shots into his chest sending him to the ground. Unfortunately his comrades noticed her and began firing at her. Minna raised her shield and began to fire at them on full auto. Her carbine bucked in her hands as she fired her remaining bullets into the group. One of the mercenaries was down but the rest had scrambled to cover before she was able to get them. Minna reloaded as they fired on her again. Minna heard the long burst of a light machine gun as bullets impacted the lip of the building she was hiding behind. Minna raised her shield and fired at them again to get their heads down. Out of nowhere Mio appeared behind them her PDR in hand. Mio opened fire on the mercenaries shooting them in the back. They all fell to the ground slumped over blood leaking everywhere from the gunshot wounds. Minna gave a two fingered salute to her lover who nodded back to her. Minna then used her magic and sense someone approaching her from behind. Minna quickly span around and fired two rounds through the head of a mercenary with a shotgun coming up the stairs. The falling mercenary fell into another that was right behind him sending him hurtling down the stairs. Minna tossed a frag grenade down the stairs and waited for the explosion. Minna then reloaded her carbine and headed down the stairs another three mercenaries were stunned from the explosion. Minna swiftly fired three rounds into each of the mercenaries on the ground. The three mercenaries lay on the ground motionless. Minna exited the building and got into the street. Minna saw Frost was shooting it out with a dozen mercenaries; with each shot he took, a Shadow Company mercenary died. Minna raised her carbine and fired into the crowd of enemies. Minna then heard over the radio one of the Shadow Company mercenaries talking to his commander.

"Disciple this is Storm 3-3 we are under heavy fire and surrounded we need reinforcements!" The mercenary shouted to his commander.

"Storm 3-3 we are unable to send reinforcements remaining units are falling back to protect Gold Eagle inside the facility." The commander said to the mercenary.

"Gold Eagle that must be Shepherd; it looks like he is underground with the rest of those rat bastards ok people finish off any remaining resistance and assemble at the underground entrance." Captain Price said to the Task Force.

"Understood sir!" Everyone shouted in response. Minna looked over her shoulder to see Perrine and Mio approaching her.

"Minna are you alright?" Mio asked her. Minna nodded.

"Yes I am alright, how are you two?" Minna inquired.

"I am fine these mercenaries are nothing I cannot handle." Mio replied to her. Perrine nodded.

"Yes I am ok as well." Perrine told her. Minna nodded and gestured over her left shoulder.

"Ok then ladies let's finish off these stragglers and assemble by the underground entrance." Minna told them. Perrine and Mio followed her towards Shepherd's main base. There was no resistance until they had the entrance in sight. About a dozen mercenaries were making a last stand in front of the tunnel. Sandman and Captain Price were already firing at them. Minna saw Price fire a grenade from his under slung mount on his M4. The 40mm shell crashed into a sandbag barrier that the mercenaries had set up blowing it apart and sending the two mercenaries hiding behind it flying back. Minna sighted up a mercenary and fired ten rounds into him. Each impact caused him to stagger back with puffs of blood spraying out from his back. Mio fired full auto at some of the mercenaries to keep their heads down while Frost moved closer to toss a grenade at them. The grenade landed in the midst of the desperate mercenaries the explosion sending fragments of metal everywhere tearing through flesh like it was wet tissue paper. The last mercenary made a run for the tunnel entrance but was cut to ribbons by the Task Force as they opened up on him; it seemed like he just fell apart as the bullets tore through him.

"Clear?" Captain Price asked. Minna used her magic to sense if there were any more people around them. When she sensed that all of the mercenaries were dead she spoke.

"We are clear no survivors." She told the British Captain.

"Ok people we are going to attack the main facility now check your ammo and grenades now." Captain Price said to everyone. Minna looked around at this point everyone was here from all three teams. Minna did an ammo check and pulled out her G18 and put a fresh thirty round magazine into it. "Ok is everyone ready?" Captain Price asked. Everyone nodded or said that they were ready for the next phase of the mission. "Ok this will be the toughest part of the mission. We are in Shadow Company's home field they know this area better than we do and they will fight to the death to make sure we can't break into this facility to stop them from destroying the U.S. government. If we fail here tens of thousands will die and Shepherd will be handed the presidency. Everyone either we win or we die there is no draws in war." Price told everyone. Minna smirked at how dramatic Price was being but she knew that he was speaking the truth. Minna had seen the intended targets and the blast wave patterns for his missiles. The strikes on Camp David and the Congressional bunker would only kill their intended targets but the attacks on the presidential candidates and the Supreme Court would have thousands of people caught inside the blast radius and judging by the video she saw of these new missiles being tested there would be no survivors in the impact zone. That was just one more reason that they needed to stop Shepherd. Captain Price readied his weapon and began to head inside the facility. One by one the Task Force headed into the breach not knowing what kind of threats they would be facing.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flying Officer Erica Hartmann

04:40 Local time

It was quite, too quite. Never more so than now was that statement truer; there was no sign of the mercenaries guarding this facility. All that could be seen was the road that lay before them. It was also very dark even with the night vision goggles Erica was wearing she couldn't see a whole lot. Erica then heard something a strange chirping sound.

"Hey did you guys hear that?" Erica asked everyone, Trudy was the first to respond.

"Yeah I heard it what the hell do you think it is?" She asked. Erica shrugged.

"I have no clue." Just then she heard some buzzing noises and saw some lights in the distance. Erica raised her weapon and looked down her sight. Suddenly without warning dozens of bullets shot towards them as these strange robot craft with four sets of rotors came out of nowhere followed by some kind of robot mini tanks. Each one had its machine gun blazing on full auto.

"Enemy drones get to cover!" Captain Price shouted to everyone. Erica aimed at one of the flying drones and opened fire; her bullets shredded the small craft which flew out of control and smashed into the ground. Erica hid behind a car and leaned out firing a short burst at one of the mini tanks. Ten rounds impacted its armor but it still kept coming. Erica kept firing. She put a full clip into the drone before it finally lost control and exploded. Gertrude and Perrine fired at some of the flying drones with their weapons knocking three of them out of the air. Lynne fired her assault rifle at one of the ground drones managing to score a lucky hit on its camera blinding it. Sandman and Soap fired under slung grenades at the drones blowing two of them up. Erica aimed and fired at a flying drone blowing it out of the sky. Erica then heard voices; a dozen or so Shadow Company mercenaries followed the drones into battle. Erica fired at one of the mercenaries sending him to the ground.

"Shit there are too many of them." Shirley snarled, as more mercenaries followed the drones in. Shirley fired thirty rounds from her M27 into the enemy sending two of them to the ground.

"Come on you know the saying 'there is nothing a witch can't do!" Minna said to Shirley who chuckled.

"Yeah but I am pretty sure they didn't have fighting an army of robots and mercenaries in mind when they came up with that line." Shirley replied.

"Oy you two focus on the battle not small talk." Captain Price stated as he fired into the mercenaries who had hidden behind some kind of mobile cover drones.

"Frag out!" Frost shouted as he tossed a grenade at the Shadow Company troops. The explosion ripped apart four of the mercenaries and wounded two more. Erica fired more rounds into one of the drones closing in on them. Her bullets must have hit something vital because the drone puttered to a stop and the light went off. A grenade landed at Erica's feet she quickly kicked it back to the mercenaries, the small half kilogram grenade exploded above their heads showering them with white hot shrapnel. A ground drone came up beside Trudy firing at her the entire time. Trudy kicked the drone hard enough that the turret deformed and stopped moving. Gertrude then advanced up to the next point of cover firing an entire clip of her G36 into the mercenaries. Sandman, Grinch and Soap advanced behind her firing their assault rifles as they went. The mercenaries began to retreat as the Task Force advanced on them. Erica finished off two more flying drones as she advanced with Eila and Sanya. Erica switched her gun to semi auto in order to fire more precise shots at the retreating mercenaries. She managed to hit one of them in the back as he slipped into the darkness. The group advanced up to where the mercenaries had been retreating to. Erica saw that there were two corridors splitting off from where they were going. Grinch then spoke.

"Ok to the left is where the barracks and the brig is that is where they are going to be holding Isabella. To the right is where they have their server room that is where all of the intelligence we need to clear our names is. Finally if we keep heading straight we will end up at the motor pool that is where shepherd is keeping his missiles with the mobile launchers." Grinch told everyone. Price then began to give orders to the Task Force.

"Ok Eila, Sanya, Erica, Soap and I will head towards the brig to rescue Isabella, Sandman, Grinch, Minna, Mio and Perrine you head for the server room and get that Intel before they can destroy it. Frost, Hanna, Shirley, Gertrude, Lynnette and Yoshika head to the motor pool and disable those missiles we will meet up with you after you disable the missile and we will head to the command room where Shepherd will probably make his last stand everyone clear?" Price inquired. Everyone gave their approval of the plan. "Ok people let's move out."

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Staff Sergeant Derek Westbrook "Frost"

04:52 Local time

"Alright people stay focused Shepherd is going to throw everything he has at us to prevent us from destroying the missiles." Frost said to his team. Hanna was behind him her SCAR-L at the ready for any threats that might appear.

"Good I like a challenge; and I have to say from what I have seen these Shadow Company guys are tougher than those Orussians we were fighting earlier." Hanna stated to Frost who smirked. Frost switched his ACR 6.8 to full auto and switched his Hybrid Sight to close range. More parked cars were alongside the road they were heading down; they would be decent cover if they got into another gun fight. Shirley then spoke.

"So Trudy it looks like you finally get your chance to face off against Mattias after all." Shirley said to the German witch.

"Huh what makes you say that?" Gertrude replied to Shirley who shrugged.

"Well just based on how you acted when you saw him s few days ago it looked like you were going to beat the shit out of him if not actually kill him for insulting you. So I imagined that you were looking forward to the opportunity to take him on in one on one combat." Shirley stated to her partner.

"Ah yes well he is a hateful little shit isn't he." Trudy responded. Lynne then spoke.

"Just don't get over eager when you see him he might have a few tricks up his sleeve when you see him." Lynnette told her. Gertrude nodded.

"Yes I will try to not let my emotions get the better of me when I see him; I am a professional soldier of Karlsland and I will not make any rookie mistakes in the coming battles." Gertrude replied.

"You shouldn't let your hate get to you Lieutenant Barkhorn if we let hate consume us how would that make us any better than the ones we are fighting?" Yoshika asked the older witch.

"Because unlike them we are only killing people who deserve it." Gertrude retorted. Frost then interjected.

"Quite down people we need to stay focused right now we don't know if there is an ambush up ahead." Frost told the group who began to quite down. Frost kept walking forward; it was strange there was less resistance than there should have been since they were getting so close to the motor pool. Frost took another step but then stopped in his tracks as he thought he could just make out something two meters away. He held up his hand to order the group to stop. Frost went down to his knees and focused in on it; it was a trip wire for a Claymore mine. Frost pulled out a pair of pliers and went prone he crawled forward until he could reach the wire. He then snipped the wire disarming the mine. Just then the tunnel erupted in gunfire as Shadow Company troops leaned out from their cover and opened fire on them. Frost rolled to cover behind a SUV and readied his weapon. Lynne and Shirley opened fire with their assault rifles cutting down three Shadow Company mercenaries with long bursts of automatic fire. Frost leaned out from cover and aimed down his sights; he lined a mercenary's head up in his crosshairs and depressed the trigger a stream of powerful 6.8mm rounds smashed into the mercenary's head blowing it apart in an explosion of gore. Bullets whizzed past Frost's head and smashed into the wall he was near. "Hanna, Gertrude toss your frag grenades!" Frost shouted.

"Roger that!" They shouted in unison as they tossed two M67 grenades at the mercenaries a twin pair of detonations rocked the tunnel and several injured Shadow Company mercenaries cried out in pain. Frost heard some chirping sounds as more drones came to reinforce the mercenary unit that they had encountered. Frost saw that they were more unmanned ground drones like the ones that attacked them before. Frost lined the nearest one up in his sights and fired his ACR at it; twenty rounds impacted into the center of the drone ripping through its armor and shredding the fragile electronic components. The drones continued their advance as the witches fired on them. Two of the drones concentrated their fire on the SUV Frost was hiding behind. The vehicle shook violently as 5.56mm rounds impacted it. Frost pulled out another Frag grenade and pulled the pin. Frost waited a moment then tossed the grenade over the SUV in the general direction of the drones; two seconds later Frost was rewarded with a loud thump of a detonation and the fire seemed to drop off.

"Cover me I am advancing to another position!" Frost shouted to the witches. They all gave their confirmation that they heard him. Frost tossed a flash grenade and waited for the boom before sprinting to another parked SUV fifteen meters in front and to the left of him. Frost slide the last three meters to the parked truck before blind firing his ACR at some of the mercenaries in cover ahead of him. Frost reloaded his gun then leaned out and begun to shoot at some of the mercenaries. He spotted a mercenary wielding an M240 and aimed for him first. Frost fired five rounds into the mercenary's chest tossing his target to the ground in a spray of blood. Frost then quickly aimed at a mercenary with an AA-12 and fired three rounds into his head showering the mercenary behind him in his fallen brother's brain matter. Hanna slide into cover behind a car parked across from him.

"Hey Frost what is your ammo count?" Hanna asked him. Frost patted his vest's ammo pouches. He had about one hundred and fifty rounds left including fifteen left in his gun.

"I have about five and a half magazines left what is your status?" Frost asked Hanna.

"I have four magazines left plus a full magazine in my gun." Hanna replied. Frost nodded to her.

"Ok try to conserve your ammo by firing semi auto or pick up some off of some dead mercenaries." Frost told her. Hanna gave him the thumbs up before switching her gun to semi auto and leaning out to fire at some of the mercenaries that were left opposing them. Frost saw Shirley rush forward her shield raised and weapon ready. She jumped over a destroyed drone and fired a half magazine into a mercenary before turning and firing three round bursts into another two. The Shadow Company operatives fell back covering each other as they retreated. Frost took a few shots at them managing to catch two of them before they completed their retreat. After a few more seconds everything was quite again. "Are we clear?" Frost asked the others.

"Yeah we are clear." Lynnette stated as she advanced with Yoshika behind her.

"Ok excellent work people, check your ammo and get some off of these guys if you need to. The motor pool should be just up ahead, so get ready." Frost told them.

"Ok so how do we disable the missiles?" Gertrude asked as she approached him.

"On the missiles there should be a maintenance panel near the warhead. You need to pull that off then pull out the guidance system and destroy it. The warhead will still be active but Shepherd won't be able to fire it until he gets some more guidance chips which should take some time. And by the time he gets them he will already be dead." Frost said to them.

"Alright I think I can do that." Gertrude replied.

"Good if all else fails we will just have to destroy them with C4 but that should be our last resort because I can't guarantee that the warheads will not detonate and kill us all." Frost told them. Everyone nodded that they understood. Frost checked his gun again to make sure he had a full magazine then he gave them the signal to continue to follow him further into the tunnel.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Captain John "Soap" Mactavish

05:11 Local time

Soap put ten rounds into the chest of some kind of weapon scientist wielding a G11. Red blood stained his white lab coat as he fell to the ground. They had entered into some type of weapons testing area. Soap saw metal storm turrets being developed, new drones and it seemed like they were trying to refine the G11 assault rifles. Price was at Soap's side firing his M4A1 at the scientists and mercenaries opposing them.

"Price, be careful they got a lot of firepower in here." Soap said to his old friend.

"Yeah I know that just evens the odds." Captain Price replied. Eila then spoke.

"You guys actually are enjoying this aren't you?" Eila inquired. Soap smiled a bit. Soap was Scottish and if there was anything a Scotsman enjoyed it was a good fight.

"What and you aren't?" Soap asked her.

"Forgive me if I don't like getting shot at this early in the morning." Eila retorted, as she fired her UMP45 at a scientist with a TDI Vector. Sanya then advanced up firing her Mini Uzi at some of the mercenaries hiding behind an inert four legged drone.

"I don't like getting shot at period." Sanya stated to anyone who was listening. Erica then spoke.

"Who the hell does?" She stated as she shot a mercenary in the mead with her MTAR-21. A bullet bounced off Erica's shield as she moved up closer to the mercenaries. Soap was actually rather impressed with the Witch's abilities not only were they rather strong and skilled at combat they all had these shields that could block gunfire and explosives with ease. Soap now understood why Sandman trusted them as much as he did. Soap leaned out from cover and aimed through his Red Dot sight sighting up a mercenary hiding behind a desk. Soap fired a single shot from his rifle and the round punched through the wooden desk and struck the man in the chest he fell to the ground and Soap fired another two rounds into him to make sure he was dead.

"I am tossing a Frag!" Soap said as he pulled out a grenade and tossed it to the other side of the room. The thunderous explosion tore through a cadre of mercenaries who were coming through the door from the next lab over. Their bodies were ripped apart by the shrapnel scattering blood, guts and torn limbs all over the room. Soap advanced with his weapon ready. A scientist with a prototype revolver of some kind stood up from behind a table and Soap put two in his chest and one through his head. Captain Price advanced with him and the witches were behind them. They got to the door of the next lab and tossed a Flash Bang through which detonated with a cacophony of lights and sound. Soap heard a yelp from the other side of the door. Soap was the first to enter the room he shot a dazed mercenary and Price shot another. One stunned mercenary fired his MP5K at them blindly hoping to score a lucky hit. Soap put him out of his misery with a burst from his M4A1 tearing his arm off blowing his right eye out.

"Clear left!" Price shouted as he scanned his side of the room. Soap scanned his side it was also clear.

"Clear right." Soap stated. Eila, Sanya and Erica also entered the room and checked the center of the room and the ceiling.

"Clear center!" Eila stated as she lowered her weapon. Price then spoke to the group.

"Ok good work people, it shouldn't be much farther from the brig now all we have to do is to get through the barracks and we will reach our objective." Price stated to them.

"Yeah but there will probably be like a hundred guys between us and Marquez." Erica stated to anyone who was listening.

"Then there will be one hundred corpses between us and Marquez after we are finished with them." Price stated as he reloaded his gun. Erica rolled her eyes which elicited a chuckle from Soap. Erica reminded Soap of Roach a bit; both of them came off as lazy but when the shit hit the fan you knew that you could count on them to pull your ass out of the fire. Soap gave a silent prayer to his fallen comrade and then filled himself with the steely determination he needed to make it through to his objective.

"Man why does everything have to suck around here?" Erica asked. Eila then spoke.

"Oh stop whining the sooner we get done here the sooner we can make it back to our world." Eila told the blonde witch who snorted in annoyance.

"Zip it both of you. Come on we aren't getting any younger here, let's move." Price stated as he readied his weapon and continued out of the laboratory. Soap followed suit. Soon they would be in the barracks where they would probably face their toughest resistance. Soap had just a few days ago had a close quarters battle with the Russians in the gulag that Price was held in. it wasn't a pleasant experience especially when they had to go through the showers and fight those riot shield soldiers. Well they were nothing that an M203 couldn't handle so it wasn't too bad Soap supposed. Soap cleared his mind and continued on the mission.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flying Officer Perrine Clostermann

05:28 Local time

"TONNERRE!" Perrine shouted as she cast her lightening spell at a nearby mercenary. The lightening seared the flesh of the black uniformed soldier sending him hurtling back. The cafeteria that they were in was ablaze with combat. Grinch and Sandman fired their assault rifles on full auto as dozens of mercenaries assailed them. Mio and Commander Minna fired both of their weapons on semi auto to conserve ammo but every shot seemed to hit their intended targets. Perrine took aim with her MP5K and fired at a mercenary with a shotgun. A stream of 9mm penetrators smashed into his body throwing him to the floor. Perrine slid over the table she was behind and flipped over the nearest one for cover. Bullets impacted her shield as she stood up to take aim and fire again. This was such bullshit Perrine thought to herself. They had not encountered any resistance until they reached the cafeteria which was just a short walk away from the server room. Why couldn't these Shadow Company brutes just lie down and accept that they have been between by the Task Force? Perrine put these thoughts aside as she reloaded her SMG. This one was a magazine of mixed ammo two penetrators and a hollow point round per every three shots. Apparently this was that Britannia Price's favorite load out for his MP5 so Perrine decided to take his advice and give it a try. Perrine flipped the selector switch to three round burst then stood up. Perrine aimed at a Shadow Company trooper and fired a three round burst at his chest. The first two rounds smacked into his chest piercing his body armor the third round the hollow point entered his body and an explosion of gore fanned out of his back and splattered the wall behind him in his guts and blood. Perrine got back into cover.

"Shit well I wasn't expecting that to happen." The blonde haired witch said to herself. Just then a grenade landed in her lap. Perrine casually tossed it over her shoulder back at the mercenaries who had thrown it at her. Perrine heard one of them shout before it detonated and blew him to bits.

"Perrine move up and flank them!" Mio shouted to her. Perrine nodded and began to move to the left of their attackers. Perrine put up her shields as bullets smacked into the shield. Perrine looked towards her attackers and fired another three round burst this one catching a mercenary in the neck decapitating him. Perrine fired at another mercenary through cover the penetrators pierced the wood but the hollow point fragmented and dispersed much of its energy against the wooded table he was hiding behind. Perrine got to the edge of the tables and started to move to the next row to advance on the Shadow Company troops attacking them. Sandman tossed a frag grenade at them blowing up four mercenaries in the process. Grinch practically cut a mercenary in half with his AUG when he fired it full auto into a mercenary's stomach. Perrine got to the row of tables that some of the mercenaries were hiding behind and went prone to stabilize her shots. She then fired her remaining ammo into the six mercenaries in that row killing four and wounding the other two who had their teammates absorb most of her shots. Perrine rolled back into cover reloaded and leaned out to finish the mercenaries off. She fired two shots each into the heads of the wounded mercenaries killing both of them. Perrine then took out an M67 grenade and tossed it at the next row of mercenaries who had now noticed her and began to fire at her. Bullets bounced off of her shield as they tried in vain to kill her. The M67 grenade detonated with a titanic blast shredding everyone in a five meter radius. Perrine then saw that the mercenaries had had enough and began to fall back to the server room. Grinch and Sandman fired into their backs as they turned tail killing all of them before they could make their retreat.

"Ok good work people the server room should be just ahead of us so reload and get ready to move up." Sandman told them. Grinch then spoke.

"Everyone expect hand to hand in the server room it is rather claustrophobic in there because all of the servers are close together; so don't bunch up when you advance." Grinch informed them.

"Alright I will make sure I use my abilities to pick out where any of those mercenaries may be hiding I don't want to walk into an ambush." Minna said to the group.

"Right that should be helpful." Sandman said to her. "Ok let's move out." Sandman said as he and the others continued their advance to the server room. Perrine checked her ammo then followed the others to their target.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flight Lieutenant Charlotte E. Yeager "Shirley"

05:41 Local time

Shirley fired an entire clip of her M1911A1 into a mechanic that knocked her M27 out of her hands. Blood splattered her face and uniform as the mechanic was tossed back against the armored car she was near. Shirley rolled to the left grabbing her M27 and firing it at another mechanic who came at her with a tire iron. Six rounds impacted the man wearing the black jumpsuit blood sprayed the walls of an armored car that was behind him. Gertrude fired five rounds into another mechanic that was coming at them. Two of those four rotor drones dove down on them firing their machine guns. Gertrude and Shirley fired at them on full auto blowing them apart. Shirley got up and looked further down the motor pool to see a row of five treaded vehicles with rather large looking rockets on top of them.

"Frost I think I see the launchers!" Shirley shouted to the American who ran over to them.

"Ok good we got to advance on those things to take them out. Cover me!" Frost said as he moved up firing his ACR at the mercenaries hiding near the launchers. Shirley and Gertrude fired at the mercenaries killing three of them in a hailstorm of lead.

"Lynnette and Marseille cover us while we move up." Gertrude said to Lynnette as they advanced on the missiles. Lynne fired her FAMAS in precise three round bursts taking out a mercenary with each shot. Shirley dashed to the launchers and got to a safe spot she then gestured for Yoshika, Lynne and Hanna to move up while they covered them. Another ground drone attacked them from further down the motor pull. Shirley dropped to one knee and fired at the drone with Gertrude. Bullets riddled the drone as it advanced, eventually destroying it. Frost got on top of one of the missiles and pulled off a sheet of metal.

"Cover me I am going to disarm this one." Frost said as he began to go to work on it.

"Come and get some mother fuckers!" Hanna taunted the mercenaries as she got in the open to draw their fire. Shirley looked to Gertrude.

"She has the right idea let's move up." Shirley said to Trudy who nodded at her.

"Ok I will follow you." She told Shirley. Charlotte moved up firing her M27 in short bursts catching a couple mercenaries in the chest with each burst. Gertrude hosed down one of the armored cars with gunfire killing a Shadow Company mercenary trying to man the machine gun on top. At the end of the corridor of vehicles Shirley saw a familiar face. A Shadow Company Mercenary with blonde hair and a beard leading a cluster of four other mercenaries to advance on them; it was Mattias one of Shepherd's go to operatives. Shirley raised her LMG and fired at them. Mattias grabbed one of his fellow mercenaries and used him as a human shield as Shirley concentrated her fire on him. Suddenly her weapon clicked empty and she ejected the magazine to begin to reload. Mattias tossed the corpse of his fallen comrade and raised his M4A1 at her. Mattias fired three rounds at her. Shirley put up her shield and suddenly it was like time was in slow motion. Shirley could see the bullets coming at her. The first two rounds struck her shield and bounced off but the third round when it impacted her shield shattered and the bullet went straight throw her Kevlar vest. A wave of pain struck Shirley as she was tossed to the ground; then darkness enveloped her.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flight Lieutenant Gertrude Barkhorn

05:50 Local time

"Shirley NO!" Gertrude shouted as she saw Charlotte's shield shatter and a bullet pierce through her body. Gertrude fired everything she had left in her magazine and rushed over to grab the Liberion witch and drag her to cover. "YOSHIKA GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW!" Gertrude shouted as she tried to see if Shirley was all right. Gertrude couldn't tell where Shirley was hit she was already covered in fresh blood. Shirley lay motionless in her arms. Gertrude checked for a pulse she couldn't feel one. "No god, please no." Gertrude pleaded; she began to give Shirley CPR to try and resuscitate her. Yoshika ran over to her and began to work her healing magic on Shirley. A blue aura surrounded her but it suddenly sputtered and died.

"What the hell." Yoshika stuttered." Gertrude grabbed hold of Yoshika.

"What's wrong use your healing magic on her!" Gertrude shouted to the young witch.

"There is something interfering with my magic I think I am going to have to get the bullet out manually." Yoshika stated as she pulled out some medical supplies. Hanna and Lynne were near them providing covering fire for them. "Get her out of her vest!" Yoshika shouted to Gertrude who then began to tear off Shirley's vest. Gertrude saw the wound now. It was in her shoulder something that shouldn't be lethal but still it seemed like it was killing the Liberion witch. Suddenly Gertrude heard Mattias' voice.

"Hey Gertrude it looks like I shot your bitch!" Mattias laughed. "Don't worry you will be joining her in hell in just a few minutes." Mattias shouted to her. An unstoppable rage began to consume Gertrude she lost all sense of personal safety and grabbed her weapon.

"Yoshika bring her back to me. Don't let her die, that is an order, got it?" Gertrude growled at her. Yoshika looked up at her and was about to say something but held her tongue and just nodded. Gertrude ran out into the open and as Mattias fired at her. She rolled to cover as bullets whizzed by her. Gertrude fired ten rounds in the general direction of Mattias before she continued advancing on him. A mercenary lunged out in front of her raising his combat knife to stab her. Gertrude blocked the knife with one arm then grabbed the luckless mercenary by the throat and smashed his skull into the ground with enough force that his head cracked like an egg, splattering gore all over the ground. Gertrude saw Mattias getting ready to lean out so he could fire at her. Gertrude fired two rounds one missed but the other struck the barrel of his gun knocking it out of his hands. Mattias cursed and drew his combat knife as Gertrude pulled the trigger on her rifle again. This time however the gun clicked empty. Gertrude tossed the gun at him and lunged for him. Mattias smacked the gun away and dodged to the left slashing at Gertrude's outstretched arm. Gertrude was too enraged to notice the pain as she tossed a haymaker with blinding speed at his skull. Mattias dodged it and slashed again this time at her back. Fortunately the vest prevented the blade from cutting into her. Gertrude summoned her familiar and got into a fighting stance then Mattias spoke to her.

"I see I got you angry. I guess you don't like it when someone kills your bitch… dyke." Mattias mocked her.

"What did you do to her!?" Gertrude growled to him. Mattias chuckled.

"I shot her with our new anti-magic round. You see it can easily breakthrough your shields and it was specifically designed so that as long as it is in a witch's body it will prevent the use of healing magic on it. Even your vaunted Yoshika Miyafuji won't be able to save that Yeager bitch. Oh and here is the best part I don't even need to score a lethal hit to kill one of you as long as it is in your body it will slowly poison you. I can assure you it is quite a painful way to die." Mattias mocked her.

"You worthless sack of shit." Gertrude snarled as she jabbed for him. Mattias again dodged it and Gertrude hit the wall behind him creating a large dent.

"I read your file. I know all about how strong you are. All I need to do to beat you is to make sure I don't get hit." Mattias said as he slashed at her with his knife. Gertrude dodged the blade and threw a right cross at him which he managed to dodge. "You know I don't think I am going to kill you here. No that would be too easy of a way out for you. Instead I think I am going to keep you as my little pet one that I can rape and torture all I want. Oh and for that matter I think I will do the same with that Jap bitch Yoshika. I know she looks like your little sister Chris so in a pinch she will have to do until I can get my hands on your sister so you can watch as I torture and rape her daily until I get bored with her." Mattias told her with a lecherous grin on his face.

"I am going to rip you limb from limb you bastard." Gertrude sneered as she threw a low round house kick towards his right shin. He dodged it and slashed for her face which she barely managed to dodge.

"Oh don't think I am bluffing about the Chris part either. Although we don't have the capabilities now we will soon have the ability to crossover to your world and I know which hospital your sister is in. I think it was called 'Our Mother of Mercy' or something like that. Ah well I have it written down somewhere. Oh and trust me I have killed plenty of women and children in my time so don't think I don't have the stomach for it." Mattias stated with a grin on his face. He stabbed out for her stomach which Gertrude sidestepped then push kicked him away. Mattias staggered back a few feet as Gertrude lunged for him. Mattias avoided her and slashed for her head, which Gertrude was able to duck. "I have to say that was a pretty good hit you managed to wind me a little." He mocked. Mattias then stabbed for her throat; but Trudy was anticipating this and grabbed his wrist. Trudy twisted his arm so his elbow was facing the floor, then she threw an uppercut against his elbow hitting it wait enough force for the bone to shattered and jut out of his skin. Blood splattered against Trudy's face as she then threw a right hook hitting him in the ribcage breaking four ribs. Mattias screamed in pain as he fell to the floor.

"That was for slashing my arm." Trudy said as she stood over him. Trudy stomped on Mattias' left arm splintering the bone; he again cried out in pain. "That was for threatening to rape me." Trudy then grabbed his left leg and elbow dropped on the side of his knee shattering his knee. "That was for saying you would rape Yoshika." Trudy grabbed his right foot and twisted his ankle until his foot was facing the wrong direction. "That is for threatening to hurt my baby sister." She then stood over him. He looked up at her.

"Fu…ck you…" was all he could say.

"Oh and this is for hurting Shirley!" Trudy shouted as she stomped on his throat crushing his windpipe. Gertrude was about to curb stomp him but decided against it. Mattias deserved to suffer. Gertrude stared down at him for a few seconds until the light went out of his eyes and she began to walk back to where the others were. Yoshika was now working her healing magic on Shirley who was now conscious. Gertrude rushed over to Shirley and embraced her; tears now flowing freely from her eyes. "Thank god I thought… I thought I had lost you." Gertrude said to Shirley.

"No… you can't get rid of me… that easily." Shirley replied as she wrapped her arms around Gertrude.

"Uh I hate to break this up but… um I am not quite finished yet." Yoshika said to them. Gertrude smiled at Shirley who smiled back to her.

"It's ok Trudy I will be fine." Shirley said to her. Gertrude still had tears in her eyes.

"Ok… Shirley… I… I…" Gertrude stuttered. Damn it how hard is it to say that "I love you". Trudy thought to herself.

"Oh after I am done with Shirley I will make sure to take a look at that arm of yours." Yoshika said to Gertrude who nodded. Frost then spoke.

"Is he dead?" He asked her. Gertrude nodded. "Good. I have disarmed all of the missiles." Frost told them. Just then over the radio someone spoke.

"Disciple this is Gold Eagle I am heading to the motor pool with my personal guard now have the power back online in forty mikes over." Gertrude heard Shepherd's voice.

"Yes sir we should have the power back online by then we are isolating the computer virus as we speak." Disciple told Shepherd. The rouge American General was heading their way. Soon it would all be over.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen

06:09 Local time

The mercenary chopped his tomahawk down at her but Eila was too quick. She dodged outside his swing and slashed his throat with her K-bar. She then pulled out her G17c and fired five rounds into another mercenary coming at her with a machete. Sanya fired a burst from her SMG knocking another mercenary to the floor. It was a close quarters battle all right. To someone who was used to combat being measured in the hundreds of meters this was downright claustrophobic. They were going through the heavily defended barracks where Shadow Company mercenaries were around every corner and doorway. Eila fired her pistol again this time into a mercenary who hadn't even had the time to put on his body armor. Blood splattered his white shirt as he fell to the ground. Soap tossed a mercenary over his shoulder then shot him in the face with his rifle. Eila reloaded her gun and holstered it. She pulled out her UMP45 and fired into the doorway that a mercenary had ducked into. Blood leaked out from under the door indicating that she had hit her target. It was quite suddenly no movement could be seen in this room. Until a wounded Shadow Company trooper got up and made a run for it. Captain Price shot him in the back of the head as he tried to escape.

"Area clear, let's move on." Captain Price said as they moved up further into the barracks complex.

"Man Grinch wasn't kidding when he said that there was going to be some tight spaces to fight in. This is pretty fucking ridiculous." Erica said to anyone who was listening.

"You complain a lot don't you Hartmann?" Price asked.

"Thanks I try to." Erica replied sarcastically. Eila rolled her eyes as she checked her ammo count. She had three magazines left not including the one she had in the gun itself. She was going to be in some serious trouble if she didn't find some more ammo soon. Eila went over to Sanya who had her familiar out.

"Hey what's up?" Eila asked Sanya who let her familiar retract into her body.

"Nothing I was scanning for any thought patterns to see if there was anyone left alive. There isn't we killed them all." Sanya stated with a hint of sadness in her voice. As efficient as she was at it; it appeared that Sanya still did not like having to kill people. Eila didn't blame her she didn't particularly enjoy wasting people either but she had no choice.

"Hey we did what we had to do, it was us or them." Eila told her. Sanya nodded.

"I know… it just doesn't make it any easier." Sanya replied. Eila nodded. Then Captain Price spoke to them.

"Ok people let's move on, we don't have all day." He said to them. Eila followed the two Task Force officers into the next room it was empty. Maybe they had managed to kill all of the Shadow Company personnel in the area. It was doubtful but possible. Eila wished she could take off these night vision goggles, but it was still pitch black inside the complex. Eila kept heading into the next room so far so good. It took her a while but then she figured out what room this was. It was Shepherd's personal quarters. She walked over to a desk where there were some documents on it. She opened up one of the folders and was stunned. Inside was a picture of her; and not just any photograph, it was one from her youth back in Suomus. It was the photo she took with her big sister before the war had started. Inside the file was a bunch of documents about Eila. It was rather well detailed it had a lot of information on her right down to her favorite foods and music. It even detailed her relationship with Sanya and how she had had feelings for the young Orussian since they first met. Eila set the file down and looked through the files. They were detailed files on all of the members of the 501st and Hanna Marseille for that matter also had a detailed file on her. Eila went over to a locker and pulled out a backpack and shoved the files into it. Soap and Captain Price stared at her.

"You done yet?" Soap asked Eila who nodded.

"Yeah I just found some Intel that I wanted to check out." Eila told him. Soap nodded and gestured for her to follow him. Eila thought to herself how the hell did Shepherd get that photo of her?

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Major Mio Sakamoto

06:21 Local time

Mio could see into the server room it was empty nothing was stirring. Perrine was on point leading the group.

"Ok it looks clear I think we can advance now." Perrine said as she slowly walked forward. The rest of the unit started to follow her.

"This is weird I would have thought that Shepherd would have placed more guys here to defend his computers, but so far we haven't had much resistance." Minna said to her.

"Yes it is strange have you checked with your magic to see if anyone is nearby?" Mio asked Minna who shook her head and summoned her familiar. After a few seconds she spoke.

"Perrine stop someone is in that room." Minna said to the young Gallian witch who stopped dead in her tracks. Perrine turned to Minna to say something; but as she was doing it Mio saw a shimmer of light in the room.

"Perrine look out!" Mio shouted to her. Perrine raised her shield as a bolt of light struck her shield with enough force that it shattered and Perrine was thrown to the ground. Grinch grabbed onto Perrine and dragged her into an empty room. Mio fired her PDR at the shimmer of light she had seen put it seemed to just vanish. It was like she was fighting a ghost of some kind.

"She is alright she just got knocked unconscious." Grinch said to them.

"What the fuck was that just now?" Minna asked the American.

"It appeared to be some kind of active camouflage." Sandman said to them.

"What the hell is that?" Minna asked him.

"It means they can go invisible." Sandman replied. Mio was about to say something when Minna tackled her. The wall to her left exploded leaving a visible hole that Mio could see through leading all the way to the server room. If Minna hadn't pushed her Mio would have been atomized.

"Fuck how can we fight what we can't see?" Minna asked. Mio then got an idea; she raised her eye patch and used her magic eye. She saw that someone was outlined in pink a cloaked figure preparing to fire his rifle. Mio raised her PDR and fired into him. The bullets impacted his torso and he slumped to the floor.

"You might not be able to see them but I can, I will clear the room for you." Mio said as she pulled out her sword.

"What are you insane? There is probably like ten guys in there." Sandman told her. Mio shook her head.

"No I am the only one who can see them. I will be fighting them on even terms." Mio said as she began to sprint into the server room. One of the cloaked figures raised his rifle to fire at her but Mio was too quick with a lightning fast slash she decapitated him. Mio dodged to the right as a blot of light passed her smacking into the wall behind her. Mio then fired at another of the figures killing him. Mio sensed someone behind her so she spun around and slashed her sword cutting her attackers belly open. Another attacker came at her from the left. Mio shot him with the last rounds she had in her PDR. The man slumped to the ground. Suddenly she heard someone clapping. Mio turned around to see one of the cloaked figures applauding her.

"Very impressive Major Sakamoto, I see the rumors they say about you are true." The figure told her. The man pressed a button on his suit and he became visible. Mio lowered her eye patch so he could see him normally. He was a rather muscular African man but his accent marked him out as being born and raised in America. He was carrying some type of rifle that looked futuristic even by 21st century standards. He noticed her looking at the rifle. "You like it? It is called a Storm PSR it uses metal storm technology. As you have already seen it can break a witch's shield." He told her. Mio was unfazed.

"What rumors might that be?" Mio said as she got into a fighting stance with her sword drawn.

"You truly are a master of hand to hand combat. Then again so am I." The man said to her. He pulled out a boxy device and set it in the corner of the room. "That is the DSM, it has all of the information you need to clear your names. I will make you a little wager if you can beat me you can have it." The man told her.

"May I ask who is it that I am fighting?" Mio asked the man who chuckled.

"Ah how rude of me, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jerome Jackson of the 1st Special Operations Group more commonly known as 'The Green Berets'" Jerome told her.

"What? You are from the American Military? Why are you helping Shepherd don't you know he is betraying your country?" Mio asked him. Jerome drew a half meter long curved blade.

"No he isn't, I wouldn't expect you to understand Major. You see you are a warrior not a soldier, which is fine but those are two completely different things. You see I know that no matter what they did you would always remain loyal to the Emperor of Fuso." Jerome said to her as he circled her.

"Of course I pledged to give my life to the Imperial family. After all what would Fuso be without the Emperor?" Mio told him.

"Yes my point exactly you see a nation is not built by its leaders no its people are what make the nation. Right now the incompetent civilian government has led my nation to ruin with its failed economic policies and its suicidal foreign policies. As a soldier I cannot stand by and let my nation suffer because of some… incompetent fools who have never had to suffer hardship in their lives. Because of the civilian government my brother died because Obama wanted a quick victory in Yemen. He forced Shepherd to attack Al-Asad's stronghold when we didn't have the proper intelligence. If Obama would have let us have another 48 hours my brother and thirty thousand other U.S. Marines would still be alive today. So Major tell me if you were in my shoes would you just stand idly by while Fuso collapsed in on itself?" Jerome said to Mio who thought for a moment. She understood where he was coming from if she was in his shoes she could see why he was angry. "All of the men you have killed in this room today were Green Berets like myself we all shared the same anger at our government for selling us out and damaging our country." He told her. Mio felt genuine regret these Green Berets were soldiers not mercenaries they were good people.

"Jerome your country is a democracy right? Shouldn't you just vote the current government out of office?" Mio asked him. Jerome shook his head.

"No all of the civilian officials are the same; all they care about is getting reelected they will pass bills into laws that hurt our nation as long as they can pandered to their party's base and get reelected. But Shepherd is different he is a patriot who will put this country back on track. ODESSA will save this country from itself or we will die trying." Jerome told her. Mio sighed.

"I guess there is no way of talking you down is there?" Mio asked him Jerome shook his head. "Very well then." Mio said as she lunged forward and slashed her sword for his collarbone. Jerome sidestepped and took a swing with his blade missing Mio by mere millimeters. Mio slashed again for his belly but missed. He stabbed for her with his blade but Mio deflected it with her sword. Jerome jumped back and Mio got back into her fighting stance as they began to circle one another.

"I see you are good. It has been a long time since I have faced an opponent such as you." Jerome told her.

"Yes I see you are quite skilled yourself." She told him. Jerome smiled then lunged for her with his blade. Mio dodged it and slashed out with her sword cutting the bridge of his nose. Jerome slashed for her belly. Mio jumped back but the blade managed to catch her vest tearing it open.

"This blade is made up of prototype composite materials it is sharper and more durable than any other metal used for making blades. It can cut through your armor with ease Major." Jerome told her. Mio pulled off her Kevlar.

"I noticed quite impressive." Mio said to him. She got back into a fighting stance and then sprinted towards him she slashed at his head but he ducked and stabbed for her legs. Mio barely dodged that blow. She jumped over him and pivoted on her heels to face him again. He lunged at her again. Mio deflected the blade and slashed across his chest. Jerome staggered then pulled out another blade. He pointed it at her and pressed a button. The blade shot out like a bullet Mio deflected it with here sword. Mio and Jerome fought for another three minutes with neither of them able to get an edge on their opponent. Everything Mio tried Jerome countered and vice versa. Mio had one last trick up her sleeve though. Mio jumped in the air and shouted. "REPPUZAN!" a burst of energy shot out from her sword. Back in her world she would have considered it pitifully small but it was more than enough to kill a human at close range. Jerome had a brief look of surprise on his face before the wave hit him. The magical energy impacted him and he burst like a blood filled balloon; blood and guts sprayed the wall and ground behind him. Mio raised her sword in salute. "I am sorry Jerome you truly were a worthy opponent but I needed to win no matter what; you deserved better than what you got." Mio said to her fallen opponent. She walked over to the DSM and picked it up. She headed back to the rest of the group and handed the device to Sandman.

"Here this is the DSM it should have everything we need to clear our names." Mio told the American.

"Ok good. We will move to RV with the rest of the Task Force." Sandman said. Perrine had regained consciousness.

"Major…" Perrine said weakly. Mio leaned down to the young witch and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright I am here for you; you are going to be alright." Mio told her. Perrine nodded sleepily.

"Ok we need to get moving, come on." Sandman said to them. Mio nodded to him and helped Perrine up. Minna patted her on the shoulder.

"Mio are you alright you seem melancholy." Minna said to her. Mio nodded.

"Yes I am fine I just finally faced a worthy advisory. He was a good man all of those men were. It was a shame I had to kill them." Mio said softly. Minna didn't know what to say. So she just nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Minna asked her. Mio nodded.

"Yes but later; right now let's finish this fight." Mio replied. And with that they headed towards the RV point.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Flight Officer Sanya V. Litvyak

06:41 Local time

"Ok people stack up." Captain Price said to the team. They were just outside the door to the brig and were about to enter the inside of the room but it was locked and it sounded like Shadow Company was still inside. Captain Price put a square shaped device on the door and got to one side of it. He gestured for soap to get on the other and for the witches to line up after them. Sanya got behind Soap and Eila got behind her. Erica got in position behind Price. "Ok breaching in 3…2…1… Breach and clear!" Price shouted as he detonated the device. The door blew apart and Price and Soap swept into the room firing their rifles at all targets that presented themselves. Sanya followed Soap and fired her Uzi at a Shadow Company trooper that was diving for his gun. There was no movement in the room. "Isabella are you in here?" Captain Price shouted. After a few seconds Isabella replied.

"Yes I am in cell number four." Isabella said. Price looked back to Sanya.

"Sanya get the key and free Marquez." Price told her. Sanya nodded and went over to the wall and pulled off a key with the number four written on it. Sanya then headed over to the cell and saw Marquez she looked a little roughed up but other than that she appeared to be all right. Her long black hair was matted down with sweat and her clothes were disheveled. Sanya opened the cell to free the American soldier when she suddenly got a strange sensation. It was familiar to her, she had felt it before. Sanya summoned her familiar and tried to scan Isabella's brain but was unable to do so. Then it hit her.

"Isabella are you… are you a witch?" Sanya asked her. Isabella dusted herself off and didn't reply. She looked to Captain Price and spoke.

"We need to get moving Shepherd will be trying to flee this facility now that you have infiltrated it." She said to Soap who nodded. Just then the lights went on and Sanya was blinded by the light, she took off her night vision goggles.

"Right, we know that he is heading to the motor pool as we speak." Soap told her. Isabella nodded and picked up a rifle from one of the dead mercenaries and checked the ammo. Eila went over to Isabella andwhispered something in her ear. Isabella nodded and spoke.

"I can guarantee you that they are on our side." She told Eila who nodded. Sanya gently grabbed hold of Isabella's arm. Isabella looked to her.

"You never answered my question." Sanya told her.

"In time everything will make sense to you. Just know that I am on your side and will help you in any way that I can." Isabella told her. Sanya nodded and thought to herself. I guess I just got my answer.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Staff Sergeant Derek Westbrook "Frost"

06:54 Local time

"Oh shit there he is!" Frost shouted as he saw General Shepherd and his guards heading to one of the parked HUMMVEEs. Frost aimed his rifle and fired at them hitting one of the guards. A bullet passed over his shoulder as dozens of more mercenaries followed Shepherd.

"Fuck that is a lot of them." Hanna said as she began to fire at the mercenaries. Frost reloaded and fired into the crowd of PMC troops. He was down to his last magazine for his rifle and he had one magazine for his FN Five Seven as a backup. Just then Frost heard the sound of a car engine starting. Tires squealed as Shepherd and some of his men drove off as the gate to get outside the complex opened.

"Fuck he is getting away!" Frost shouted. Frost looked from side to side to see if there was anything that he could use to stop them. There wasn't a damn thing. Frost then remembered something. He ran down a few isles of vehicles and found a pair of dirt bikes that he could use. Frost turned the ignition and the bike started up. Gertrude who was still with Shirley who was recovering from her injury spoke.

"Where are you going?" She asked him.

"I am going after Shepherd. Cover me and don't let any of those mercenaries follow me got it?" Frost told her.

"What, alone are you insane?" She protested. Frost shook his head.

"If I don't go after him he is going to escape I have to stop him." He said as he hit the accelerator and began to head down the tunnel that Shepherd had escaped from. The tunnel was long probably about two kilometers in length but Frost covered the distance quickly in his bike. The sunlight initially blinded Frost but his eyes quickly adjusted. Frost saw Shepherd's vehicle in the distance. He continued gaining on the armored car. Frost pulled out his pistol and waited until he was in range. One of the mercenaries accompanying Shepherd leaned out from one of the windows and fired at him with a UMP45. Frost fired three rounds and hit the mercenary causing him to fall out of the vehicle. Frost nearly ran into him but swerved at the last moment. Frost gained on the HUMMVEE and aimed for the wheel he fired five shots all of them missed. Frost swore and got closer. They were now approaching the side of a hill to Frost's left was a fifty meter slope with a sixty degree incline. Frost fired his remaining shots this time he managed to hit the rear left tire. The car went out of control and skidded off the hill rolling down the entire way. Frost stopped the bike and pulled his ACR off his back. He crouched and waited for any sign of movement. Shepherd and another mercenary got out of the HUMMVEE; Frost fired his rifle at them but several of his shots missed. Shepherd and the mercenary fired back at him with an MP5 and Shepherd's revolver. Bullets shot past Frost as he focused and fired another two rounds these ones killed the mercenary. Frost then aimed for Shepherd and fired they missed. Frost's gun clicked empty and Shepherd used this opportunity to escape into the forest. Frost swore and slid down the hill after him. Frost grabbed the fallen mercenary's MP5 and checked its ammo. He pulled another two clips off of the corpse and headed after Shepherd.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Sergeant Lynnette Bishop

07:09 Local time

Lynne aimed her FAMAS at a mercenary using a riot shield and fired. The bullets impacted the shield but didn't affect the man behind it. She then aimed for the gun the enemy was using and fired at it. Her bullets impacted the man's hand blowing it off. Hanna fired her rifle then swore.

"Fuck I am out of ammo!" She shouted. Hanna then headed to one of the nearby corpses and pulled his rifle off of his body and went back to the fight.

"Where did Frost go?" Yoshika asked, Gertrude then replied.

"He took a motorcycle and went after Shepherd." Gertrude told her.

"What by himself?" she asked Gertrude who nodded.

"Yeah I think he lost his marbles; but he said Shepherd would escape if he didn't go after him." Trudy told her. Yoshika ran off, Lynne was about to go and stop her when more bullets passed overhead and Lynne got up to spray the mercenaries with more gunfire. She wasn't sure she managed to hit any with that volley but hopefully that kept their heads down. Lynne heard the noise of a motorcycles engine rev up and Yoshika drove by them.

"I am going after Frost!" She stated.

"What no stay here Frost can look after himself." Hanna told her. Yoshika shook her head.

"I am not doing any good here least I can do is to go and see if Frost is ok." Yoshika told her.

"No it is too dangerous Yoshika!" Lynne pleaded to her friend who shook her head.

"I know but I need to make sure he is alright. When the rest of the Task Force gets here make sure to let them know where I have gone." Yoshika said to Lynne who nodded. Yoshika then spoke into her radio. "Francesca I need you to fly that robot plane around and find Frost ok?" She asked the other witch.

"OK I am looking for him now." Francesca replied. Yoshika then kicked the ignition and drove down the tunnel after Frost.

Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Staff Sergeant Derek Westbrook "Frost"

07:17 Local time

Frost fired ten rounds of his MP5 at Shepherd who managed to evade the gunfire by ducking behind some trees. Shepherd retaliated with a series of shots from his powerful revolver. Frost hid behind a tree which shook violently with each impact. Frost leaned out and fired more shots at Shepherd who was dashing between the trees. Frost's gun clicked empty so he reloaded. Frost then moved up closer to where Shepherd was hiding. A gunshot rang out and a ricochet passed over Frost's head. Frost sprayed the general direction of where the shot came from. His gun then clicked empty. Frost cursed then advanced closer to Shepherd. Frost saw the American General who then turned to face him. Shepherd pointed his revolver at Frost but Frost threw his gun at the General hitting him in the face. Shepherd fired his gun and missed. Frost closed the distance and tackled Shepherd to the ground. Frost then knocked the gun out of Shepherd's hand and started to strangle him. Shepherd bucked his hips up and tossed Frost off of him. Frost scrambled to get up as Shepherd advanced on him and hit Frost square in the jaw. Shepherd threw another punch that Frost parried and counter with his own right cross hitting Shepherd in the face. Frost then kicked Shepherd away to get some distance why he regained his senses. Shepherd laughed.

"I see you have improved a bit since our last sparing session." Shepherd told him. Frost gritted his teeth. The taste of blood was in Frost mouth; he must have bit his tongue or something.

"Why Shepherd, why did you betray the Task Force?" Frost demanded of him. Shepherd frowned.

"I have been watching the Task Force 141 for some time now. I realized that you didn't have what it took to do what was necessary to win; and I knew that you would never accept my coup so I decided to have you all eliminated." Shepherd told him. Frost snarled; this man his mentor his commander; the person that was as close to a father figure as Frost had had since he was a small child; casually decided that he wanted Frost dead.

"I am going to fucking kill you, you traitorous bastard." Frost snarled. Shepherd smirked.

"You are certainly welcome to try, but it won't change anything. America is on the warpath against Russia now. There will be no shortage of patriots and no shortage of volunteers in this new war. America will be a superpower again, and ODESSA will rule this nation one way or the other." Shepherd told him.

"ODESSA won't rule this country if you haven't figured it out already; the 141 has wiped out Shadow Company and destroyed your missiles, and after I kill you ODESSA will be no more." Frost sneered to Shepherd who smirked.

"Oh sure Shadow Company is gone but there are other PMCs I can use, the CELL, Tactical Solutions, Raven Shield, more than enough potential soldiers to complete ODESSA goals. Even if you do kill me ODESSA will live on there are already people prepared to take my place." Shepherd replied smugly. Frost growled.

"Well then I guess I will just have to hunt ODESSA down one by one then." Frost said as he lunged for Shepherd. Frost threw a flying round house kick hitting Shepherd in the side of the head. Shepherd quickly recovered and blocked Frost's next kick and countered with an elbow to the face. Frost felt blood trickling down his face but his mask was soaking up most of the blood. Frost threw a right hook catching Shepherd in the temple, then followed it up with a left cross to his jaw. Frost then threw a haymaker but Shepherd grabbed him by the arm and tossed him over his shoulder. Frost smacked into a tree. Pain shot throughout Frost's body. Shepherd was top of him. Shepherd hit Frost in the Face over and over again. Frost's vision was blackening and he was slipping into unconsciousness when hear a voice.

"Stop Shepherd I won't let you kill him." the voice said.

Outside of Shadow Company Headquarters USA

Sergeant Yoshika Miyafuji

07:26 Local time

General Shepherd stood up from Frost as he looked up at her. Yoshika had drawn her pistol and aimed it straight at the American General. Shepherd smirked as he looked at her.

"Surrender General you have been beaten." She told him. Shepherd raised an eyebrow and spoke.

"Or what?" Shepherd asked her. Yoshika kept the gun leveled him.

"Or I will shoot you." Yoshika stated. Shepherd laughed.

"No you won't I read your file Miyafuji you are pathetic. Out of all of the members of the 501st you are the one who least deserves to call herself a soldier." Shepherd mocked her. Shepherd walked over to where his revolver was and picked it up.

"STOP RIGHT THERE I AM SERIOUS I WILL SHOOT YOU!" Yoshika shouted. Shepherd smirked and walked over Frost and stomped on his chest. "I won't let you kill Frost." Yoshika said to him.

"Ok then shoot me." He told her.

"What?" Yoshika replied.

"If you want to protect Frost the only way you can do it is by killing me." Shepherd told her. Yoshika was taken off guard. She really didn't want to kill Shepherd or anyone for that matter. Shepherd seemed to sense this and he grinned. "You see Yoshika you don't have the stomach for this. I read your file and your wish in life is to protect everyone right?" Shepherd asked her. Yoshika nodded. "How naïve. You see Yoshika as a soldier you end up killing far more people than you protect. After all that is what it truly means to be a soldier; to kill your country's enemies. Mio understands this; that is why she fits in so well in this world. You on the other hand frankly lack the stomach to survive in this world. In this world only the strongest and most brutal can survive, and you are neither of those things. So I will give you one last chance to stop playing soldier and run along." Shepherd mocked her. Yoshika was stunned for a moment but shook herself out of it.

"No I won't abandon Frost he is my friend." Yoshika told him which just seemed to amuse him even more.

"Really now honestly how do you expect to protect everyone if you aren't willing to take that extra step and kill someone. If Frost really is your friend then we wouldn't even be having this conversation. If I was in your shoes I would have just shot you in the back to save Frost. If I didn't shoot you in the back and gave you a warning to stop and you went for your weapon I would have gunned you down on the spot. And you know what I wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep over it either. That is the difference between you and I Yoshika; you don't have the will to win and I do. That is why you are never going to protect anyone Yoshika. To be honest I would imagine that your father is incredibly disappointed in you." General Shepherd mocked. Yoshika was at a loss for words. Was Shepherd right was there no way she could protect her friends if she wasn't willing to take someone else life?

"No there has to be another way. Killing is wrong it is something that we should never do." Yoshika told Shepherd who had seemed to lose interest in her as he began to reload his weapon slowly.

"Which is exactly why all the other witches have refused to kill too right? Please don't make me laugh Yoshika there are only two types of people in this world, the killers and the dead. And since I am still alive I can safely assume that you are of the latter of those two groups." Shepherd said to her as he finished loading his gun and pointed it at Frost. He turned away from her and looked to Frost; he suddenly got a look of regret in his eyes. "For what it is worth Westbrook I do regret how things turned out between us you showed so much promise." He told him. Shepherd cocked his revolver and was about to pull the trigger when a gunshot rang out and Shepherd staggered; he looked to Yoshika and saw the smoking barrel of her pistol. He looked down and the rapidly expanding ring of red around his chest and looked up at her. "Well I'll be damned." He said before he collapsed to the ground. Yoshika lowered her gun; and began to cry. It was too much for her to handle she had taken another human being's life. Yoshika sank to her knees and began to sob. Frost got up and staggered toward her; he knelt down and wrapped his arms around her. Yoshika began to wail in sorrow at what she done. She was a hypocrite now; she was a killer, just like everyone else in this world.

---

Wow that was an exciting chapter wasnt it and poor Yoshika her innocents was shattered when she killed Shepherd. i bet you didn't see that one coming didn't you guys. anyway so at this point on the story will follow the MW3 missions a little bit closer than i have with the MW2 missions so expect to see the Task Force heading overseas. anyway so please do read and review as reviews do encouarge me to write faster XD