Evening came quick and the day seemed to be a lazy one. Almost everyone was asleep, except Doug. He was reassembling his custom pistol, then after that he took out a metallic tube from the drawer of his desk. He placed it into the tube at the centre of the room. The tube popped its head out, and then a holographic image of a computer desktop filled the room. He reached out his hand, selecting an icon that looks like a phone. He pressed it and phone bells ring silently.

"Come on, Rina. Pick it up," said Doug to himself. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" asked Doug as he hastily tried to keep the mini holo-computer.

"It's Maddie. Can I come in?" replied the voice. He heaved a sigh of relief and put the holo-computer back to the centre of the room. He walked to the door and creaked open the door slightly, so to make sure that was her. Indeed it was her.

"Come in," said Doug. She hurried in and Doug locked the door.

"Whoa," said Maddie in amusement as she looked at the room filled with desktop icons. Then she spots the holo-computer at the centre of the room.

"That's a secret computer that only Vespin and I knew. But since you are in it as well, you might as well know this piece of the latest technology issued by the military," explained Doug. Then the ringing noise stopped ringing and a screen appeared. Doug used his fingers to 'hold' the edges of the screen and shrunk it so that it only filled one face of the wall in his room. Then a face appeared.

"Hi, Rina," said Doug.

"Brother, now's not the perfect time for a call. It's after midnight here. I've got a mission early tomorrow," replied Rina in a sleepy tone. Her brown, wavy hair looked like a mess.

"After midnight? Weren't you still in India this morning?" asked Doug.

"We moved fast, brother. Now we are reinforcing Malaysia and Singapore, heading to assault the Australian landmass," replied Rina, before noticing Maddie next to him.

"Who is she? I bet that's not Vespin," said Rina, in her still sleepy voice.

"Of course not. Rina, Maddie. Maddie, Rina," introduced Doug. Rina opened her eyes a bit.

"You told her, didn't you?" asked Rina, in her more angry tone.

"Well, everyone's suspecting that I'm sleeping with Vespin. And you do know that rumors spread fast. It's most likely that you will hear the bad gossips about this, and the twins are not going to be so happy, am I right?" asked Doug. Rina sighed at that question.

"You do have a point. But how is she going to keep this secret?" asked Rina.

"I was an aspiring lawyer. And you can guess what lawyers do all the time," spoke up Maddie.

"I'd better hope so. Nice knowing you anyways," said Rina. Then she remembered something.

"Oh, it's you!" exclaimed Rina. "You're the girl that stole my brother's heart!"

"Yup, she sure did," replied Doug.

"Even if you didn't know about this yet, you'll find out sooner or later. My brother has a hard time keeping secrets," said Rina as she giggled. Maddie giggled along with her. Doug got irritated.

"Rina!" scolded Doug in his irritated tone.

"Can't you take a joke, brother?" asked Rina. Doug became dumbfounded. Maddie giggled harder. After the giggling has subsided, Rina spoke.

"Take care of him, Maddie. And also Vespin. You, brother, remember your task?" asked Rina.

"Yes, take care of Vespin like she was you, sister," replied Doug lamely.

"Well, gotta go. Need to catch up on my sleep," said Rina before ending the call.

"Busy as she always is," commented Doug before turning to Maddie, only to get surprised as she leaped onto him and they both landed on the bed.

"Do you love me?" asked Maddie, lying next to her new boyfriend, who seemed be soundly asleep. She caressed his naked chest and reached her hand to his face. Doug, although asleep, smiled. Maddie reached and kissed him on the lips. Doug woke up and opened his eyes.

"What time is it?" asked Doug before looking at his wristwatch. It showed 7 am.

"Morning, handsome," greeted Maddie before landing her lips on his.

"Morning, beautiful," replied Douglas, reaching out his arms to hug her.

"It's another three hours before anyone else wakes up," commented Doug.

"You hungry?" asked Maddie seductively.

"Yeah," replied Doug as he received a kiss from Maddie. They made out for the whole morning.

Weeks have passed and the break was over. The team has been prepped and they're getting ready for the next mission.

"So what they say about this mission?" asked James as the team exited the headquarters at Hamburg and heading to a transport chopper. The three Hind helicopters at the helipad, Bravo 1, 2 and 3, with its loud engines, made hearing impossible.

"WHAT!??" said Doug.

"I SAID, WHAT IS THE MISSION ABOUT?!" repeated James again, stating his question louder.

"DIDN'T YOU LISTEN!? WE'RE GOING TO ITALY, WHERE SOME OF THE FORCES ARE PUSHING FROM TUNISIA AND SICILY!" replied Doug as they entered the chopper, Bravo 1. Bravo 1 lifted off from the ground, together with its sister choppers, Bravo 2 and 3, full with TSWAT Delta operatives, started the 600-mile journey to the Italian front lines.

When the Hinds were travelling over the Alps, several attack helicopters popped up from behind the mountains.

"AH-64 Apaches! Bravo 1 taking evasive action!" said the second pilot. The Hind dived down, dodging two missiles from the Apaches. The other two used their chain-guns to hit the missiles, but one managed to fly past and hit one of the Hind's tails.

"Bravo 3's been hit. We're going down," said the helicopter.

"Good luck on the landing, comrade," said Bravo 1 before swerving to the left. Bravo 3 managed to crash-land safely at a valley in the Alps. In the passenger area, Alpha team 1 was starting to feel groggy from the twists and turns made by the pilot.

"Do you even know how to fly this piece of junk metal!?" James yelled sarcastically to the pilot as he was starting to feel sick.

"Da, they don't call us Russian pilots for nothing," said the pilot as he pulled up at a steep angle. The team was falling off their seats. They were trying to grab hold of what used to be seat belts. Maintenance had been scarce in these dark and dangerous times.

"Pilot, a little help here," said James while he and the rest were hanging to their seats. The pilot looked back.

"Whoops, sorry comrade!" said the pilot before leveling the helicopter. The pilot then radioed to Bravo 2.

"Go and get the survivors of Bravo 3. We'll take care of these fascist pigs," said the pilot.

"Roger that, comrade," replied Bravo 2 before swerving away. The pilot of Bravo 1 saw the helicopter fly away before looking at the two Apaches.

"It's two of you versus one of me," said the pilot, staring at the Apaches with determination in his eyes. The Apaches did not hesitate and fired their rockets. The Hind fired its machine guns, destroying the rockets that were aimed towards it. Then the Apaches quickly dived and appeared behind the Hind.

"You may have outrun me, but you haven't outsmarted me. Hold tight, comrades," said the pilot before diving down and speeding away. The Apaches fired at the Hind with their machine guns, but all bullets missed. The Apaches gave a chase. The Hind went into a valley, turning left and right to avoid colliding with the rock face. The two Apaches fired heat-seeking missiles at the Hind.

"That's the last mistake you'll ever make, Mr. Hitler," said the pilot as he pulled the chopper upwards, making a loop-de-loop and coming down, zooming past the Apaches. The heat-seeking missiles acquired to its new heat targets, the Apaches, and the missiles destroyed them.

"Backstabbing's a bitch, ain't it?" said the Hind pilot before slowing down and climbing back to altitude.

"You okay back there?" asked the pilot. All he got as an answer was moans of dizziness.

"Oooooookay, let's keep going," said the pilot as he made his way out of the valley to a flat, grassy plain. On the ground, several American-SS troops were observing the Hind move past. One of them aimed a Stinger at the Hind and fired. The missile was closing in fast.

"Hold on comrades, missile's a-coming!" said the pilot as he tried swerving away from the Stinger missile's path. The missile missed the body, but got its tail. The chopper started to rotate violently towards the ground.

"Hold tight! We're going to crash!" said the pilot as he tried maintaining control over the helicopter. The chopper landed with one hard thud. The American-SS troops ran towards the scene to kill off the surviving members of the crash.

Doug quickly dragged Terry and Ivan out of the burning wreck, while the others helped themselves out. It was quite a crash, but all of them escaped with minor bruises. The pilots, however, never made it. The cockpit was facing the ground when it crashed, so it was smashed to smithereens.

"Terry, Ivan, get up!" said Doug, shaking them then hearing their breath. They seemed okay; they were just unconscious.

"Cheryl, hand me some ammonia," said Doug. Cheryl opened her First Aid kit and took out a bottle of ammonia. She was about to hand the bottle when shots were fired. Doug lifted his right hand out and an invisible shield was deployed.

"Wow!" exclaimed Maddie.

"Cheryl, get them up. We'll hold them off. Everybody else, get behind me!" commanded Doug. Cheryl got into work of getting the two up while Doug and the rest were shooting at the American-SS troops. Maddie deployed her shield from her arm and tried to flank them but being showered by bullets. Ivan was brought up to life first.

"Whoa, what the fuck happened?" asked Ivan groggily before a bullet flew over his head.

"Whoa! Whoa!" He hastily grabbed his sniper rifle, ran towards and aimed from behind Maddie's shield and started sniping off the SS troops. Terry was up seconds later. He quickly turned and aimed his rifle in the opposite direction. He fired at the SS troops trying to flank them. The SS troops didn't expect that to happen, and they started to retreat. They ran off but Ivan killed every one of them so that they wouldn't report to their superiors. They all looked at the horizon. The sun is starting to sink behind the mountains.

"Let's make camp. We'll leave by tomorrow," said Doug. With the gear they brought with them; several gun clips, a Medi-kit, two tents, a camping lamp and 8 bottles of beer, they set up camp near the river at the plains.

It was 5 pm. The sun was disappearing behind the mountains. Ivan and Cheryl were at patrolling duty. Maddie sat on Douglas' lap, Vespin was sitting at a rock overlooking the horizon, James and Yee Lin were also looking at the horizon, sipping beer and holding hands, and Terry opened his bottle of beer and took a gulp.

"Hey, hadn't you notice? It's New Year's Eve," stated Terry. Doug and Maddie nodded. Terry took another gulp from his beer.

"Well, all I can say is 'Happy New Year'. Let's hope this war ends quickly," said Terry, raising his bottle before taking another gulp. Maddie and Doug just smiled. They knew another year had passed, but the war just doesn't seem to want to end yet.

"Well, a little beer wouldn't hurt," said Doug, putting his hand out, indicating for a bottle of beer. Terry reached out to his bag and took out a bottle. He opened it and handed it to Doug. Doug took a gulp and put the beer bottle down on the ground. Maddie leaned on his shoulder as they looked at the sun disappearing behind the mountains. It's a matter of time when night falls in. Doug caressed her hair and gave her a soft kiss on her head. Maddie relaxed and smiled.

"Happy New Year, love," said Doug.

Maddie giggled and replied, "You too, my only one."