Chapter 3
Reality Check
After they had disembarked from the helicopter, they had all gone their separate ways to change and get cleaned up, as well as do any reports/restocking of supplies that needed to be done before they could turn in for the night.
Anna had joined back up with the rest of her team in the mess hall while Lennox had split off to go video chat with his wife and daughter. She looked up at the sound of two jets launching into the sky heading off base. A sense of foreboding shivered down her spine and she felt her necklace vibrate almost tentatively against her skin, picking up intensity. She didn't know how she would be able warn anyone in time without sounding crazy.
She closed her eyes and opened them looking around at her team, her family. Anna stood back up.
"Where you going?" Epps asked.
She didn't answer instead hurried off back to the women's quarters to grab whatever she could think of. Her team was going to survive whatever was coming, she swore to herself.
She strapped on her gear and placed the med kit on her back. She placed her handguns in holsters on her sides and extra magazines in her pockets and grabbed her rifle with extra magazines for that as well.
Anna then sprinted out of the barracks just in time for chaos to erupt around the base as the Decepticon - she guessed - began to destroy everything around it.
Explosions and screams were everywhere with fire and death being left in the wake.
Anna spotted the village boy that had been found in the desert a week ago sprinting with Lennox and headed after them, knowing that Lentos would lead to the rest of the team.
As she rounded a corner she finally saw the mechanical being that was luckily not paying attention much to Epps whom was sprawled out on the ground.
"EPPS!" She screamed and raced forward grabbing him and the grenade bunch he had in his hand, throwing the grenades at the Cybertronian and causing it to become distracted when it exploded. Anna dragged Epps over to the rest of her team and the village boy as they scrambled for the outer layers of the base where the tanks were kept and hopefully where they could escape.
"Move!" She ordered and they did just that. The alien became distracted by the large aircraft carriers and other soldiers and began firing at them.
They got into the tank and started it up and began to leave, feeling guilty and horrified that they were leaving their fellow soldiers behind. But they each knew that the government needed to be warned about this thing and they needed to be ready for if it and any friends came back.
Anna settled in between Epps and Lennox in the back, everyone else spread out as they sat in silence. Anna placed her head on Epps' shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her, each of them taking comfort from each other.
Anna's eyes slid closed of their own accord. The adrenaline leaving her completely exhausted. Hopefully when she woke up, they would be somewhat safe.
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It was a normal day for Tony, well, as normal as it gets for him anyways. Tinkering, inventing, explosions, etc. you get the idea when Rhodey came into the lab with a somber expression.
"Why so down, platypus?" Tony asked, trying to ignore the strange feeling of dread that had begun to creep into him.
"Tony, we need to talk."
"Uh oh, are we breaking up?"
Rhodey just shot him a stern, serious look causing Tony to roll his eyes.
"Okay." But the engineer for once listened to his best friend and followed him to the futon that had been placed in the lab for when he couldn't be bothered to go up to bed. "What's up?"
"JARVIS, tune into the emergency broadcast by the Secretary of Defense," Rhodey said instead. Tony was now curious. A hologram popped up onto the coffee table in front of the futon showing John Keller holding a press conference. Tony leaned forward.
"I'm John Keller, the U.S. Secretary of Defense. At 1900 local time yesterday, the SOCCENT Forward Operations Base in Qatar was attacked. So far as we know, there were no survivors." Here he paused and looked down for a second as if to compose himself. Tony tilted his head, eyes narrowing. It wasn't like John to get emotional about something, especially on live television. "My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the soldiers based at Qatar. We have not, as of yet, been able to identify who attacked the Qatar Base, but be reassured that we will and they will be held accountable for the lives that they destroyed. Thank you."
Tony turned to his friend with an eyebrow raised wondering why Rhodey still looked somber.
"Yes, that's sad and terrible, Rhodey, but what has that got to do with why you're acting like that?"
"Tony, there is no easy way to say this… John confirmed this for me when I talked to him right before his press conference… Mari was stationed at the Qatar Base."
Tony's heart stopped.
Mari.
No, Rhodey had to be mistaken.
"You're wrong, Rhodey. Mari's somewhere in Malibu or Miami sipping a Pina Colada and enjoying not being around me." Tony said trying to deny what his friend was saying.
"No, Tony, I'm not. Mari at the age of eighteen started base camp under the name Anna Johnson. She had all of her degrees legally changed over to her new name and any record of Anna Johnson and Mariann Stark being in any way connected erased and stored on an USB drive. She was the medic for a team of ten men and has been in the army for almost a decade now. I haven't talked to her since the night she left nor have I heard from her, that's why I had talked to Keller before coming here, he was informing me that's where she was stationed. I'm sorry, Tony, but she's gone."
Tony felt tears begin to build up in his eyes but still shook his head in denial.
Rhodey felt terrible but knew that he had to tell Tony the news and the proof.
"JARVIS, please pull up the list of active duty personnel that were based in Qatar."
Immediately a long list of names popped up on the coffee table.
"Alphabetize and scroll down to J's for me."
Rhodey leaned forward and touched the name that almost popped out at him immediately.
'Johnson, Anna'
Selecting onto her name caused her military profile to pop up and Tony to choke out a sob. For that was a picture of his little sister - a little sister that was all grown up… a little sister that he would never be able to beg forgiveness from nor tell how much he loved her.
Rhodey was right.
Mari was gone.
