The Orlov rumbled across the sky as it carried its combatants toward the battlefield to fulfill Operation Motherland. Gamma squad has officially been banned from the recreational area after exhibiting their stupidity with the Takao Russian Roulette incident. The men of alpha squad found themselves one extra person when the medic Tanya Ivanovic was assigned to their team. In an attempt to win the attention of the only female on the squad, Kush and Zhang Yi fell back to another bout of knife fighting. After being taunted by Heliang so much, Kush tossed a grenade at him. This little incident forced the commander to restrict alpha squad to their quarters. Thus, beta squad became the only ones allowed to roam freely aboard the Titan, which immediately led to a constant stream of infirmary visits. Strangely enough, the remaining twenty one squads faced no such problems, or maybe they were just so good at hiding their stupidity that the commander never caught them doing it.
"So, how long until we get there?" Heliang asked as he cleaned his Shuko absent-mindedly.
"We're over Sicily right now," Ivan replied as he slapped a new clip into his Voss.
"Sicily?" Heliang gaped as he looked at the telescreen, "No way."
"The bearings don't lie," Ivan pointed it out.
"I know they don't, but this is Sicily?" Heliang asked.
The once lush and warm island has changed dramatically since the advancement of the ice. Instead of trees, ice covered the landscape, the beach is completely frozen over, and the only signs of life are the smoldering buildings.
"But, three months ago, you could still swim there!" Heliang exclaimed, "Now where am I supposed to pick up some loving along the way?"
"Wow," Zhang Yi sat down with his Park, "way to occupy your time, thinking about picking up Mediterranean beauties during a war."
"Oh come on," Heliang retorted, "Give me a good reason why the girls down there won't like me, one good reason."
"I can give you five," Zhang Yi replied with a wry smile, "One, you're in the PAC, two, you're an idiot, three, you ran back screaming when Kush threw a dud grenade at you, four, you punch people in your sleep, and five, you're married."
"Hey, my wife is as good as dead; I haven't seen her in three years!" Heliang protested. Turning to Ivan, "Do I punch people in my sleep?"
"Yeah, you do," Tanya walked in and sat down next to them.
"Hey Tanya," Zhang Yi smiled and put his arm around her shoulder, only to receive a jab from her elbow.
"Don't touch me," she scowled.
"Wait, I really do punch people in my sleep?" Heliang asked incredulously.
"Yeah, and while you're doing it, you were yelling 'I love gay porn'," Tanya responded in a matter-of-fact way, "It was very funny, until you started tearing off your clothes."
"Seriously?" Heliang asked.
"No you idiot," Tanya laughed, "You just punch us and go back to sleep."
Heliang looked as if he had been kicked in the face by a Bogatyr walker.
"Wait a minute," Ivan looked around, "Where's Kush?"
"I think the last time I saw him, he said something about rocket juice," Zhang Yi replied.
"I don't get it, is he trying to out-drink the commander or something?" Tanya asked. "I swear, if he keeps drinking, he's going to need a new liver soon."
"Guys, I'm fine," Kush came in, holding two bottles of rocket juice in his hand.
"Toss one over," Heliang said.
"Yeah, you want a grenade to go along with that?" Kush laughed as he lobbed the bottle at Heliang.
"Very funny," Heliang retorted, "just wait until we're on the ground and you're begging me for cover fire."
Just then, the Titan came to a halt and the commander's voice boomed through the COM channel.
"Touchdown, we are on the southern edge of the Saharan jungle. The ground has been cleared of most obstacles by orbital strikes. The European Union and their African allies are staging a counter offensive in grid four, six, and eight. Fire teams Neptune, Mars, and Jupiter are to concentrate their assault on those areas. Second and third tank corps, prepare for heavy casualties as you will be responsible for breaking through the enemy's lines. Squads alpha through epsilon are to take control of silos one, five, and seven. Squads zeta through kappa are to take control of silos two, four, and six. Squads lambda through pi are to take silos three, nine, and eight. Squads rho through phi are to take control of silos ten, eleven, and twelve. Squads chi through omega are to remain onboard the Titan and repel any attackers. Doragon squadron one through six, achieve air superiority. Mechanized infantry, secure the ground area. Once their shields are down, squad kappa through phi are to mount an offensive on the enemy Titan. Good luck soldiers."
"Alright, you heard the commander, haul ass!" Ivan ordered his squad. Despite never really having much authority over his teammates out of combat, Ivan was a dominating squad leader on the battlefield. A veteran of Operation Migration and Deception, he knew what needed to be done to survive on the ground.
The launch bay of the Titan was bustling with activity by the time alpha squad got up there. The twenty gunships were ready for action as their operators jumped in the seats. The transports were being loaded and taking off. Meanwhile, snow drifted in the sky, fizzing to nothingness when they touched the Titan's shields.
The PAC had upgraded their vehicles for the counter offensive against the EU's Operation Northern Strike as well as for the long awaited Operation Motherland. The Ocelot had been rendered completely obsolete by the new Hachimoto. Although the new speeder had less protection,; it packed more than enough offensive punch to counter the new EU APC, the Goliath. The Yastrebs were now outfitted with powerful undercarriage mounted missile pods to fend off the EU Talons while the Doragon had been given both a more powerful engine that gave it greater speed and an EMP cannon in an attempt to eliminate EU air superiority. The Nekomata received stronger armor to better combat the Tigers. But the Bogatyr was where the drastic changes truly took place. In the few short months of the Cold War's opening, PAC researchers have managed to drastically alter the control interface of the Bogatyr. Most PAC soldiers still remember being chased down by their own battle walkers when the EU managed to get their hands on one of the walkers. Now these behemoths were connected to its operator through a neural interface planted within the soldier. This lessened the training time and also gave more room to place the new power core, boosting the speed as well as the active defense countermeasure time. Instead of two relatively large cooling vents in the back, the walker now had four small cooling vents near the heavily armored missile pods. More cooling meant more auto-cannons were added, making a total of six.
"Alpha squad, over here," someone yelled.
"Holy hell, it flies?" Heliang asked incredulously as he started at the Yastreb. The transport was not only loaded with soldiers but also carried a Romanov APC. Strangely enough, the PAC did nothing to change the Romanov, despite it being shredded each time it came across a Goliath.
"No," the pilot, who was standing near his ship, responded. "It doesn't, it just sort of falls down gracefully and slowly enough to drop you morons off and then blows up when the enemy gets too close."
"Okay, fine," Heliang muttered, "More people to insult my intelligence."
"I don't know," Kush chuckled, "There's not much to insult in the first place."
"Oh shut up, both of you," Tanya groaned as she climbed aboard the Yastreb.
The Yastreb took off, slower than usual due to the excessive weight, but still managed to fly. The transport rattled and shook as it maneuvered over the pitted battlefield. The Saharan jungle had completely frozen over, and the frosty ground softened as the transport slowly touched down fifty meters from the silo.
"Out, out, out," the pilot yelled, "I don't want to die for you idiots."
"You know, some manners really wouldn't hurt," Zhang Yi muttered into his mike.
The pilot turned around and pointed a pistol at him.
"Okay, sorry, jeez," he put his hands up in mock surrender as he jumped out of the Yastreb with his teammates.
"Alright, secure the silo," Ivan ordered as he clicked the safety off his Voss. Just then, murderous machine gun fire ripped through the air.
"Damn it, they got a sentry gun set down," Heliang yelled as he took to the ground.
"Well, what the hell are you waiting for?" Kush yelled, "Take it out!"
"You got any EMPs?" Heliang yelled back.
"No, weren't you supposed to have them?" Kush bellowed.
"No, I thought you were supposed to have them." Heliang yelled.
"Are you kidding me?!" Ivan yelled as he fired at the group of EU soldiers that emerged from their hiding place near the silo.
The sentry gun kept firing, intent on killing its targets.
"Oh for crying out loud," Heliang yelled into his mike, "Does anybody have any EMPs?"
"They can't hear you, because they're too busy shooting for you!" Kush yelled, "What kind of infantry support are you if you didn't pack EMPs?"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Heliang screamed as he took out a frag and lobbed it toward the sentry gun.
Miraculously, the explosion disabled the machine.
"Wow, I guess those hours spent chucking half eaten lunch into the air vents really do pay off." Heliang muttered.
"What?" Everyone on the squad turned.
"Nothing, LOOK OUT!" He tackled Ivan just as a Pilum AVR shot sailed through the air where Ivan's head was a second ago.
"I got him," Zhang Yi said as he picked off the foolish engineer who just gave away his position.
"Damn it, where's everyone else?" Tanya asked as she gunned down two overzealous EU grunts.
"I'm guessing the pilot dropped them off at the other two silos." Ivan replied. "Looks like we're on our own for this silo."
"Perfect, absolutely perfect," Zhang Yi grumbled, "The only thing our squad doesn't have is a silo programmer, how in the devil's name are we going to reconfigure that silo?"
Nobody had an answer.