Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. I was close to finishing this chapter only to have it end up getting corrupted because my computer was being stupid, so I had to rewrite the whole thing... In any case, here is the third chapter.

Chapter 3: Replicated Trouble

"Still no sign of that school, Sweetwater," said Haggard as we were walking.

"I assure you, it's this way," stated Sweetwater. Suddenly, Sweetwater stopped and hid behind what was left of a wall.

"What is it, Sweetwater?" questioned Sarge.

"There's someone down that street!" whispered Sweetwater.

"Marlowe, use your binoculars and get a closer look." I moved in, past Sweetwater, and looked down towards the soldiers. I had never seen soldiers like this before. They wore greenish colored fatiques and curved body armor. It reminded me a lot of US Army fatiques, like in Delta. Their faces were coverd by head masks and they appeared to have visors at the front of the mask.

"I've never seen guys like these before," I explained.

"What are they doing?" Asked Sarge.

"It looks like they are just standing there and talking."

"They're probably talking about important strategies. See if you can find anything out, Pres," said Sweetwater.

"I don't know about that. Back when I had to do patrol before I was in Bad Company, we would often just stand there and talk about pointless stuff," I said.

"Well it could have been worse. You could have been stuck in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with no action whatsoever," commented Haggard.

"With the war against Russia? No chance of that happening," stated Sarge. "Are they friendlies, Marlowe?"

"I can't tell. It sounds like they are speaking english, but that doesn't say anything about them really," I replied.

"Well, then I guess it can't be helped. We'll have to move in closer and do some recon. We'll have to be as quiet as possible, or else they'll..."

"HEY ARE YOU WITH THE GOOD GUYS OR BAD GUYS?" shouted Haggard at the top of his lungs. The soldiers immediately turned around and ducked into cover.

"Contact!" yelled one of the soldiers as they started shooting at us.

"Haggard! Why did you do that?" cried Sweetwater.

"Well, it solved the big ol' mystery about these guys, right? That's what's important, we can ask questions later," said Haggard. Sarge sighed.

"We've got no choice now. Engage!" We started shooting at the soldiers.

"You know, these guys really seem to know what they are doing," said Sweetwater. He had a point. The way the soldiers moved, provided cover fire, and their team work... it all seemed very fluid and precise.

"Yeah they are good," I said. I popped up and fired several shots, hitting one of the soldiers in the head. "But they don't seem to be perfect."

"You know, it's one of those days that I'm REALLY glad that you are on our side, Pres." Haggard took out two soldiers with a grenade, Sarge and Sweetwater took out another two, and I killed one more. Suddenly the soldiers stopped firing and ducked behind cover. Resulting in an eerie silence. Then they got up and fell back where we couldn't hit them. "Hey, they ran away."

"Now why would they do that?" Asked Haggard.

"They must have gotten orders from whoever is commanding them, which is probably lucky for us," stated Sarge. "Let's go take a look at the corpses. Maybe we can figure out who these guys are." So we moved in to get a closer look.

"I've never seen guys like these before," I said.

"I don't think these soldiers are from any branch of the US Army, and they were speaking english, which rules out them being from another country."

"Hey, look at this!" Exclaimed Sweetwater as he turned one of the dead soldiers over. We went over to Sweetwater to get a closer look.

"What is it Sweetwater?"

"Look at this, Sarge. Recognize the tiny symbol on the top of the combat vest?" As we took a closer look, I could see what Sweetwater was getting at.

"That's the Armacham logo," I commented.

"Maybe this is one of them Armacham Security guys?" Suggested Haggard.

"No it's not. These guys are equipped differently than the security force," declared Sarge.

"Oh man, I've got a bad feeling about this," added Sweetwater.

"Well, let's not waste any more time here. Let's move out!" As we progressed down the post-apocalyptic streets, we came across a plaza filled with rubble that would serve a soldier well as cover. It seemed that someone was already using this place for that exact purpose. As we hid behind a wall we heard a constant stream of gunfire and shouting. "Marlowe, you are on recon. Find out who is shooting at who." I pulled out my binoculars again and used them to get a better look at the battlefield.

"It looks like Armacham Security is fighting those unknown soldiers from earlier," I reported.

"Well, that's a relief that they aren't allies. They'll be too distracted killing each other to even notice us. This gives us a good chance to slip by!" Commented Sweetwater.

"I think you mean: More for us to shoot at. That's more fun," countered Haggard.

"No, I wouldn't say being shot at is fun. Those unknown soldiers know what they are doing. They are..."

"Sweetwater... just shut the hell up," said Sarge. "Marlowe, can you see anything else?"

"Yeah, it looks like there is a third group participating in this fight," I added.

"Who?"

"From what I can see, the third group consists of one guy. It looks like he's with Delta."

"Only one guy? Who would send one guy against two factions?" Asked Sweetwater.

"He probably got separated from his squad in this hell hole," replied Sarge.

"Wait a second... I think I know that guy," I said. I zoomed in to get a closer look. "Yeah, there's no doubt about it. That's Mike, Michael Becket. No wonder he's doing so well against two groups at once."

"So he's a skilled soldier?"

"You could say that. Back when we were learning how to use sniper rifles, Mike had... holy shit."

"What happened, Pres?" Asked Haggard.

"I know Mike is good at fighting, but this is something else. He just killed three Armacham security soldiers and two unknown soldiers in two seconds flat. I didn't even know that it was physically possible to move that fast... let alone have that kind of reaction time." I looked through the binoculars to see that Becket was getting flanked by both groups. "Uh-oh, I think he could use a hand though."

"Then let's go save that guy's ass! Marlowe, go over there and support your friend. We'll flank the enemy from the far right," ordered Sarge. I nodded and ran through the ruined buildings and reached Becket's position. I jumped forward and killed one of the unknown soldiers as he approached the wall Becket was hiding behind. Becket hadn't changed one bit since I had last seen him. He had the tough look on his face that gave him the appearance of someone you didn't want to piss off. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing some sort of visor. He looked over at me with a look of surprise.

"Pres? Is that you? Why are you in this hell hole?" Asked Mike.

"Yeah it's me Mike. I just happened to be in the area and I saw that you were in the middle of a giant battle. So I figured you could use a hand," I replied.

"Thanks, I could use the help," said Mike as he got up and shot at two Armacham security soldiers, killing them. "As a side note, once we're out of this mess, how about we find some ice cold beer and catch up on what we've been busy with for the past year or so."

"Sounds good. Let's just get things wrapped up here and then take care of whatever else that needs to get done." The two of us continued the attack. The rest of my squad flanked on the right and took down any enemies that we missed. After the fight we regrouped at the center of the plaza.

"Is this your squad, Pres?" Asked Mike.

"Yeah he's in our squad. I'm Sergeant Redford. The one to your left is Sweetwater, and the one to your right is Haggard," stated Sarge.

"I am Sergeant Michael Becket, Delta."

"So you and Marlowe know each other?"

"That's right. We have known each other since we were little kids. The two of us enlisted around the same time and went through Basic together. Eventually we got separated when I was recruited into Delta."

"And I ended up at some outpost in Russia. Nowhere near as exciting," I concluded.

"So how did things go over there? I missed the last year of the war against Russia because of some advanced training I had to go through. You must have earned quite a few medals, right? Maybe even the medal of honor?" I hesitated for a second. I hadn't even told Mike about the whole 'chopper incident'. This was going to be interesting.

"Uhhh yeah, about that. One day I got really bored and I decided to take a chopper for a pleasure cruise. I accidentally landed it on the General's Limo." If looks could kill, Mike would have drilled a hole through my head.

"What were you thinking? That aside, how are you not in jail?"

"I got transferred to Bad Company, that's how I avoided prison time."

"Bad Company? Isn't that the branch of the military that has the highest mortality rate?"

"Yeah that's us," commented Sarge.

"I don't believe this. Had you not pulled that stunt I'm pretty sure you could have eventually been a good candidate for F.E.A.R., just like I am."

"F.E.A.R.? As in: First Encounter Assault Recon? That branch actually exists?" Asked Sweetwater.

"I thought that was just a myth," said Haggard.

"No, they're real. So why is Bad Company here exactly?" Asked Mike.

"I could tell you, but I don't think you'd believe me," I answered.

"After spending a few hours in this hell hole, I'll find anything believable. So try me," stated Mike with a smirk on his face.

"Alright, so we've been sent in to find and destroy this woman named Alma Wade. Apparently she already died but has somehow come back to life or something like that. She has strong psychic powers and she's kind of scary. It's a rather ridiculous sounding mission, isn't it?" There was nothing but silence. "Mike?" I looked over at him to see that he was pale and had a look of horror on his face.

"Oh god... you mean... you are trying to destroy...her?" Asked Mike.

"You've seen her too?" Asked Sarge.

"Yes... I have..." Mike shuddered as if shaking off a bad memory. "Then in that case, we have a common purpose. I need to rendezvous with my team and then we will come up with a plan to take out Alma."

"Agh! Snipers! I'm pinned down!" Cried a female voice on the COM channel.

"Becket, can you get to her?" Asked another voice on the channel.

"What was that all about?" Asked Sweetwater.

"Lt. Stokes is in trouble, I have to go save her!" Exclaimed Mike.

"You mean Kiera Stokes? She's in Delta as well?" I asked.

"Yeah. She's been in Delta longer than I have."

"So is she your girlfriend or somethin'?" Asked Haggard.

"W-what? Where did that come from?" Demanded Mike as he started blushing.

"Haggard, look at that. I think he's blushing," said Sweetwater.

"Well, would you look at that! They may not be dating, but it's pretty clear that somebody has got a crush," added Haggard.

"I...th-this... that is... I... Don't make me pull rank on you!" Exclaimed Mike in an unusually flustered tone. I kind of figured that Mike was interested in Kiera, but this proved it.

"Would you two shut up already? He's higher ranked than both of you, show some respect!" Exclaimed Sarge.

"Anyway, let's get a move on. The sooner we get there, the better." We went north, towards what was left of some sort of building. I didn't know what we would find in the areas ahead of us, but it was good to know that we now had five people instead of four.

Don't worry, the next chapter shouldn't take anywhere near as long to write up and upload.