The characters and the plots belong to their respective owners. I therefore own nothing, minus the names of my OCs. However, I do own the OC of Ava Grady as well as the DEFCON Year Universe books, which you can find on Amazon through typing "Defcon Year Ryan"

BTW : I sign this fanfic to the brave defenders of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine, glory to heroes.

AN: Due to this year being 2024, I can tell you only one thing for November 2024: VOTE BLUE, VOTE BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT

After two weeks in the field, Ava was exhausted and sleep-deprived. Yet, her determination to be part of her country's victory was intact since she knew President Biden promise victory, whatever the cost might be. Even if it meant Ava had to see gruesome scenes of the aftermath of what Russians and the other World War III Axis troops would do to civilians, Ava was willing to kill as many enemies as possible. Even if it meant strafing dead Russian, Iranian, Chinese, North Korean, Cuban, Burkinabe, Nigerien, Malian, Eritrean or Venezuelan soldiers.

And speaking of shooting dead enemies, Ava and her team were now joined by the rest of the MEU and the other Allied troops tasked with ousting the houthis and Iranian troops out of Yemen at any cost necessary. Ava was holding her camouflaged M4A1 carbine when she suddenly shouldered it and fired it a houthi trying to set a machine gun nest after the area was bombed by B-1Bs and B-52s with JDAM and Paveway bombs. Ava also noted how the US Marines had received the M10 Bookers as part of an emergency reequipment program involving every branch of the US Military with hardware now manufactured with resources entirely exploited on US soil, including titanium, oil, rare earth metal and iron ore.

And one of the M10 Bookers was now in front of Ava, who was now showing targets for the armored vehicle. And said target happened to be a T-72 tank which had been unfortunate enough to have been struck in the track by a US Marine's AT-4CS launcher. Ava laser pointed it to the USMC Booker, which fired a 105mm APFSDS round. And the round struck the hapless T-72 in the turret ring, causing a massive explosion that tossed the turret in the air before it fell onto a group of Iranian soldiers firing on the US Marines, turning them into a mix of blood, intestines and bone fragments.

Ava smirked upon seeing those disgusting individuals getting a taste of their own medicine when several 155mm shells struck many other machine gun emplacements and static tanks, destroying these targets and killing dozens of houthis militants and Iranian soldiers. Ava and the other US Marines involved in Operation Blue Storm made advances matching those made during Operation Cobra in 1944, during which Ava's great-grandfather fought and rolled through Northern France until the US 3rd Army reached the Moselle.

And now Ava was fighting against another bunch of extremists who vowed to dominate the world while also contending with mailing her father and stepmother. But what was new about her plate carrier was that it was specifically designed for women, like in many of the Allied countries taking part in World War III. The mass mobilization of fit-for-service men, as well as the agressive and massive recruitment campaigns have managed to get more volunteers than needed to fill the ranks of the Allied militaries, even the American one. This also meant the Allies had one third of their combined fighting forces consisting of women, with the US having 35% of women in their ranks all branches combined.

And Ava was proud of such an effort being made by Allied nations involved in the war, but for now, she still had to fight alongside other Allied units to liberate Yemen. As she focused on the task at hand, she motioned one of her men to check a building with his scope, which he did. The US Marine then motioned Ava he spotted an enemy target in the form of an enemy anti-tank missile. Ava nodded before taking the radio when the enemy missile and its crew were suddenly blown apart by a 2000-pound Paveway bomb.

As Ava saw a quartet of US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet buzz over the ground troops, she realized it must have been the special operations units infiltrated behind enemy lines that guided the planes to their target and laser-marked the target. As artillery shells rained down on yet another enemy position, Ava and the rest of the motorized and amphibious troops kept advancing, linking with American and Spanish paratroopers who had taken an airfield days before and had been since ressuplied by constant air dropped supplies.

Needless to say, Ava recognized some American Green Berets among the troops meeting the amphibious forces. And one of those Green Berets was none other than Zach, who had been marking targets and destroying weapons emplacements, drone launching facilities, supplies depots and even command structures. Zach and his fellow US Army Green Berets also had lots of assistance from US Navy SEALs, USAF Air Commandos and MARSOC operatives as well as British SAS, German KSK, French Commandos Marine, Canadian JTF-2, Australian SASR, Spanish UOE and Belgian SFG commandos.

"Hey Zach. Glad you got your fucking silver fucking wings." Ava told her cousin.

"Yeah. Glad you made it. How many guys did you and your friends lose?" Zach replied.

"Already too many." Ava answered somberly.

Zach nodded sadly, understanding Ava lost lots of good friends, all of whom were replaced with raw recruits while veteran US Marines were either transfered stateside to serve as instructors or were now leading the units and field-teaching everything they learned the hard way to the rookies. And Ava was now a seasoned combat veteran of World War III despite her quite low rank.