Fortunate Son of the Sea God

A/N: Sorry for the long wait in between chapters...again. I've been in a frenzy posting new stories and I'm helping my bud, Maelstrom J, with his story called Olympus Has Fallen so I'd appreciate it if you guys checked it out. I also had a very rough trip to Auburn this past weekend. I won't go into too many specifics other than the fact that I ended up in the emergency room. If you want more details feel free to PM me. Anyways, enough about me and on with the story!

Chapter 14: War...What is it Good for?

Piper POV

After the skirmish last week, Piper and Jason had been assigned to help out the Air Calvary in a search and destroy mission. Chiron said that command had received intel on a N.V.A. base that was supplying weapons and supplies to the Viet Cong in the area so he ordered Jason and another demigod of his choice to accompany the assault. Jason picked Piper almost immediately which caught her off guard but she accepted with a salute.

They were currently sitting in a Huey helicopter on the launch pad as they blades started to spin up ready for flight. Piper took a deep breath and clutched her rifle close to her chest. Not only had she never flown before but she was nervous about the mission. They were going to be dropped deep behind enemy lines surrounded by the enemy with hardly any cover.

Jason must've noticed Piper's worried expression because he placed a reassuring hand on Piper's shoulder.

"Don't worry Pipes, we'll get through this together, I promise," he said with a smile as the helicopter lifted up off the ground.

Piper gave him a nod before looking out as the helicopter started it's trip towards the objective followed by several other helicopters. Soon, they had left the base behind and all Piper could see out the door for miles and miles was the lush jungle scenery. Piper wasn't used to seeing so much jungle due to the fact that she was born and raised in the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles. The beauty of the jungle was occasionally dotted with areas of dead trees. These were no doubt from the bombing runs that were constantly going on. Sometimes, Piper could often hear the explosions in the distance from her bunk back at base and it kept her up at night.

Piper turned her attention to her fellow demigod Jason who was inspecting his gear. Jason was practically the perfect soldier. His Roman blood made him very disciplined not only in combat but in how he carried himself. He never disobeyed orders and was always punctual.

He looked up from his gear and made eye contact with Piper. His eyes were as blue and stormy as ever yet they were not as wild as his sister Thalia's eyes. Jason gave Piper a smile before going back to his gear.

"One minute out, everyone et ready!" the pilot shouted from the front.

Piper and Jason and the other soldiers immediately got themselves ready. One soldier crossed his hand over his chest back in forth in prayer while another held a picture of what Piper could assume was his significant other. Piper felt a pang of sorrow for the soldier and the girl in the picture.

Piper was shaken from her thoughts when gunfire rung out from down below. One soldier manned the M60 machine gun mounted in the door and opened fire on the jungle down below. Piper couldn't make out where exactly the gunfire was coming from but she popped off some shots with her rifle.

The helicopter started to descend towards the clearing as Piper held her breath and continued to shoot into the surrounding jungle. The helicopter finally made contact with the ground and the soldiers quickly filed out and hit the dirt going prone trying to engage the enemy hidden in the jungle. The wind from the blades violently whipped at their backs but they paid it no attention.

A soldier with a sergeant patch on his shoulder rose up a little and opened his mouth to issue a command but before he could utter even a syllable a bullet passed right through his throat. The man clutched his throat and let out a strangled gurgling sound as blood poured out of the wound. Several more bullets ripped through his torso before his lifeless body collapsed on the ground in a heap.

"MEDIC!" Jason shouted.

Another soldier with a red cross on his helmet crawled over and placed his head on the man's chest searching for a pulse.

He solemnly shook his head in defeat and Piper could only stare at the body mortified. They hadn't been in combat today for more than five minutes and they had already suffered a casualty.

Jason immediately noticed that everyone was frozen in shock and took charge barking out orders to the soldiers.

"Concentrate fire on our left flank! Someone radio headquarters and tell em' we'll need air support!" he ordered.

Piper shifted her fire to the left flank and spotted the outline of a human figure. It was no doubt a bad guy but she hesitated on pulling the trigger.

"Piper! Take that son of a bitch out!" Jason shouted.

Piper shook her uneasiness away and aimed down the sights and focused them on the figure she had just spotted. She remembered her weapons training back on Long Island and held her breath and gently squeezed the trigger. The gun bucked against her shoulder as it always had but she kept in steady. Before she could blink, the figure clutched what looked like it's stomach and dropped to the ground.

Piper had just killed a man. She had committed murder. Granted, she knew it was allowed given the circumstances but it still rattled her brain.

"This is what you signed up for is it not?" she thought to herself.

Before she could think on it anymore she heard a thud sound on the ground a few feet away.

'GRENADE!" someone shouted.

Piper instinctively dug her head in the ground before the ground rumbled from the grenade's explosion. Piper checked her person for any shrapnel and let out a brief sigh of relief when she found out she was okay. A loud moan from a familiar voice suddenly cried out from nearby and Piper glanced over to where the sound came from and her heart nearly broke.

Jason was sprawled on the ground with several wounds from the shrapnel covering his body. He had taken the shrapnel to protect her.

"MEDIC!" Piper screamed as she fought back tears.

No one responded and Piper just lying there as bullets whizzed and cracked in the air over her head.

"Fine, I'll do it myself," she mumbled before crawling over to where Jason was laid down.

When Piper got closer she got a better look at just how gruesome his wounds were. He had a small cut on his lip that was dripping blood to go along with several other small cuts on his body. It was nothing too serious and Jason would be fine as long as he got some attention soon. Piper then remembered that she was carrying a canteen of nectar. She opened Jason's mouth and poured some of the godly drink into Jason's mouth. Jason swallowed and coughed a few times before the cuts started to fade.

"I'm gonna get you out of here Jason just...just hang on," Piper said as Jason nodded.

"Someone lay down some covering fire!" Piper yelled at some nearby soldiers. She laced a lot of her charmspeak into her words as a massive amount of gunfire rang out from the Americans. Piper also noticed that the gunfire from the jungle wasn't coming towards her and Jason anymore. Her charmspeak must've somehow gotten through to the Vietnamese which surprised Piper because she didn't yell in Vietnamese.

Piper then gave a quick prayer to the gods before standing up and interweaving her arm with Jason's. They ran into the jungle back the way they came.

The trip was long and tiring but eventually the two made it back to base panting and wheezing from exhaustion.

Jason unlinked his arm from Piper and turned to look at her. Piper noticed that the cut on his lip from earlier hadn't healed completely and was now a little scar.

"Thanks for saving my life," Jason said.

"I should be thanking you Jason, you took that grenade for me," Piper responded. Piper noticed that Jason had a blush on his face.

"Come on, let's get something to eat," Jason said changing the subject. "I think we've earned a decent meal after today."

Piper nodded her head before she and Jason walked over to meal tent walking side by side.

Annabeth POV

Annabeth wished she had been better prepared for the treatment she would get from the men in the army who weren't used to seeing a young woman such as herself.

She was constantly given weird looks by the men. Some of them full of surprise that a woman was allowed to serve and some filled with lust or even both. She could understand why a lot of them were like that, they weren't used to it and some hadn't seen a female that wasn't Vietnamese since they had left to go serve.

Annabeth was currently in a tent full of captains and lieutenants that were strategizing for an attack on a hill that was supposedly vital to both sides.

"We are going to assault the hill head on and overwhelm them with our numbers," one man said as he pointed at the hill on the map.

Annabeth shot up angrily from her seat and interrupted the planning.

"That is suicide! You should send them around both flanks and take them by surprise," she said as she pointed at the map of the hill.

The man, whom Annabeth noticed had a captains patch on his shoulder, merely chuckled at her.

"That's exactly what they expect us to do, girl, and no one asked for your opinion anyways," he said as many others laughed in agreement.

Annabeth rolled her eyes in frustration but kept her cool.

"They won't have enough men to protect their front and their flank," she said.

"What makes you think that? I've had scouts report to me that they've spotted activity in the surrounding jungle, we would be walking into an ambush!" the captain yelled.

Annabeth's inner Athena was telling her that the Viet Cong were setting a trap and they know that the Americans would try to avoid the jungle because that's where the Viet Cong excelled in combat.

Annabeth massaged her temples in frustration as she tried to convince the thick-headed mortal that he would be walking into a meat grinder.

"Please...listen to me...I-" Annabeth started before the captain cut her off. Annaneth had to obey orders even if they came from a complete dumbass.

"Send the word, we attack at dawn," the captain said as everyone nodded.

The following morning, Annabeth sat back away from the hill but had her eyes trained on it with a pair of binoculars. She hoped to Zeus that she was wrong about the attack and even though she hated being proved wrong, she didn't want to see too many American soldiers die.

Annabeth's hopes were immediately crushed as soon as the attack started. The enemy had taken up fortified positions on the hill and cut down many of the advancing American troops. She watched in horror as soldier after soldier was torn to pieces by the gunfire. Annabeth quickly grabbed her radio and tried to get someone on the other end who could call of the attack.

Before she could turn the damn thing on a stray bullet from the battle crashed into the radio immediately disabling it. Annabeth cursed in Ancient Greek before hopping in a jeep. She slammed her foot on the gas and tore through the jungle back towards base camp.

She quickly made it back to the camp and stormed into the command tent. She wanted to give that captain a piece of her mind but she brushed it aside for later. She needed to help those soldiers getting obliterated on the battlefield. Annabeth grabbed the radio and started communicating with the men who were attacking the hill.

"To anyone who can hear me, retreat off the front of the hill and double back into the jungle and attack their flank!" she commanded.

The captain stormed over and tried to take the radio away from Annabeth but she kicked him away into table covered in maps.

"You're disobeying a direct order Chase! I'll have you court martialed for this!" he warned.

Annabeth ignored him and waited anxiously to hear back from the radio if her plan had been successful or not. The gunfire could still be heard in the distance until it quieted down.

"All clear, Hill 937 is secured," a voice spoke from the radio.

"Roger that," Annabeth said as she breathed a sigh of relief.

She then turned around to look at the captain who was standing nearby awestruck. Before he could say a word Annabeth made her way over to him and punched him square in between the eyes knocking him out immediately.

"Athena always has a plan bitch," she said as she stepped over his unconscious form.