13:43:55, The Elysium Checkpoint/Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi, Vietnam, as one half of the regular infantry divisions keep the Non-Combatants warm and supplied with humanitarian aid and round-the-clock security, U.S., Australian and South Korean Spec Ops and the other half prepare to move into the capital to clean house. With Delta Force taking point.

Specifically, Nightfall and Hightower's SCAR (Silent Clandestine American Ranger) Team. Featuring First Sergeant (formerly Company Quarters Master Sergeant) Everest Arlington, Master Sergeant (formerly Russian Army Master Sergeant) Lukas Glazkov and Sergeant First Class (formerly Special Agent) Catherine Fox.

Nightfall: SCAR Team, form up. Everest, Lukas, Catherine, thank you for joining us.

Arlington: Always, sir. After all you've done for us, it's the least we can do.

Lukas: Feels good to have the right purpose to do what we do best again. Thank you, sir. Even for little things like diversifying Delta Force's weaponry to fit my combat style.

Fox: More like thank you for bringing us in, especially me. I know Delta Force hasn't had a woman in their ranks before, I know this assignment was meant for Cora, and I know you two were close.

Nightfall: Please, it's nothing. Besides, I believe making you proper soldiers is the best way to honor Cora's memory.

Fox: For Cora.

Arlington and Lukas: For Cora.

Nightfall: If there's nothing else, let's get started. Hightower.

Hightower: With The Elysium Checkpoint established and Global Risk deported, we are given the green light to bring the rest of the storm to the NVA Soldiers and Civilian Insurgents who are trying to use guerrilla tactics like in the First Vietnam War. To avoid casualties and to outrun bad orders from our commanding officers, we will take point in surgically removing hostile elements from every hiding place in every corner of Hanoi. From indoors to even sewer access. We will start in the latter. Be ready, because we need to breach and clear fast for this to work.

Arlington: Always.

Lukas: Good.

Fox: My style.

Nightfall: Once all unconventional forces are KIA, we will move on with Viking Team 6, Sentinel Team, and supporting elements from the South Koreans and extract any and all Non-Combatants we may come across. Any mission-related ideas go on this holographic computer. Any remarks? Any questions?

Fox: You know, with my birthday coming up four days from now, being free from my programing and horrendous parents and coming home with people who I can call "family" is about the only wish I could really ask for.

Nightfall: Hey, if you want, we can hunt down your parents after the war. No one's untouchable. Not our own, not even them.

Fox: I'd love that. Thank you, Captain.

Nightfall: Anything to help you guys out.

Arlington: Alright, SCAR Team. Let's get this thing done and dusted.

Delta Force

Everest Arlington

14:02:55, after clearing out Hanoi's Metropolitan Waterworks, the newly formed SCAR Team starts off by working through the Sewerage System.

--

The Best And The Worst Of War

January 21st, 2052 - 14:03:00

1SG. Everest Arlington

Delta Force

Hanoi, Vietnam

--

Nightfall: (quietly) Careful now. Knowing Vietnamese guerrilla warfare, the tunnels and rivers could be crawling with dangerous animals. Make good use of your Nitrogen, Incendiary and Shock Grenades and X-Rays. Here we go.

[door opens]

[NVA Soldiers coordinating]

[Civilian Insurgents coordinating]

[snakes hissing]

Lukas: (quietly) Just like jungle survival in Brunei.

[MDRX fire]

Fox: Two tangos down. Nothing like the smell of human waste and the sound of animalistic death to drive you crazy. *tilts head* Let's tunnel rat this shit.

Into the sewers, Nightfall, Hightower, Arlington, Lukas and Fox begin claiming scores of hostile men and women. Backed up by cobras, pythons, scorpions and spiders.

Nitrogen Grenades and Incendiary Grenades are used to clear out the side tunnels and sharp corners. While Shock Grenades are utilized for electrifying the streams of sewage, killing anyone and anything in them.

The Sergeant First Class and the Sergeant Major get extra careful in sweeping as they rely on their firearms and X-Ray Vision. But the Captain, First Sergeant and Master Sergeant are more confident and precise as they hunt with their knives and without goggles and take care of themselves just as efficiently as their technical teammates, just like the Tunnel Rats of the past.

Halfway done and at a crossroads, SCAR Team splits up with Nightfall, Arlington and Fox taking the left way and Hightower and Lukas going through the right path. Less than 20 minutes of shooting, stabbing, freezing, lighting and electrocuting NVA Soldiers, Civilian Insurgents and their pets later, the Sewerage System of Hanoi is clear with no Delta Operator getting poisoned or killed.

At the end of the line, they climb back up to the surface and meet Viking Team 6 (Captain Haytham Johns, Second Lieutenant John Taylor, Staff Sergeant Perry Davis and Staff Sergeant Cody Wilson) once again. Along with the now expanded Sentinel Team, led by 24th Special Tactics Squadron Operator Major Norman Lennox (just "Lennox" in the original) and supported by Smokejumper, Victoria and Tyler.

And the 2nd Infantry Division support assigned to the west side of the city. Both teams were expecting them and awaiting the order to flood the sewers with NVAF fuel and light it up with an Incendiary Grenade.

Lennox: We've been expecting you, SCAR Team. Good to see you.

Nightfall: *exhales* Good to see you too, Lennox, Johns, guys.

Johns: Hey, Nightfall, Hightower.

Taylor, Davis and Wilson: Hey, Nightfall, Hightower.

Hightower: Great to see you again, my brethren. *exhales* Born to hunt, SCAR Team.

Lukas: Longest hunting trip I have ever felt in my life.

Arlington: Best job I've ever had.

Fox: Oh yeah, living the dream. *chuckles* What do we have here?

Smokejumper: The New Vietnamese Air Force's fuel. We have orders to flood the entire Sewerage System and set it on fire.

Arlington: Had to seize it before you could use it?

Victoria: (English) That is correct. It was a slow but smooth assault with zero casualties. (Korean) Captain, what are the reports of the other teams?

2nd Infantry Division Captain: (Korean) The Metropolitan Waterworks is ours and all corners of the sewers are overflowed with airplane fuel. We are good to go.

Victoria: (Korean) Outstanding. (English) The sewers are now submerged. Would you like to light it up yourselves, SCAR 1?

Nightfall: (English) We would like that, Victoria. (Korean) Thank you.

Victoria: *nods*

Lennox: *nods* Alright, people, stay clear from any sewer hatches!

Johns: *nods* Viking Team 6, get to an SD (Safe Distance)!

Nightfall: Arlington, Fox, care to do the honors?

Fox: Love to.

Arlington: Definitely. Happy birthday, Catherine.

Fox: Thanks, Everest. Fire 'nade out!

[splashes]

Victoria: (Korean) (on comms) Detonating in four, three, two, one.

[Incendiary Grenade detonation]

[explosions]

[fires cracking]

Arlington: Bloody hell. That has got to be the best fireworks show I've seen in a long while. *takes pictures*

While Arlington, Lukas, Fox, Hightower Sentinel Team, Viking Team 6 and the 2nd Infantry Division take in the fiery view, Nightfall analyzes the aftermath via the U.S. Space Force Spy Satellite, which is now used to provide ISR for the entire Winslow Accord. After confirming that no friendly or Non-Combatant has been killed, he readies SCAR Team for their support ops for the arriving Korean Army Soldiers and 707th Special Mission Group assault and rescue teams.

Nightfall: Man, with our efforts to ensure that none of us get captured or killed, this is starting to feel more like a massive special op than a standard full-scale invasion. Thank God for constant innovations. SCAR Team, Viking Team 6, congratulations. You just took the hardest resistance of this war for everyone. The rest should be smooth sailing. Now let's go help 'em out some more and finally see Vietnam fall, hooah?

SCAR Team: Hooah!

Viking Team 6: Hooah!

Four Days Later

--

The Best And The Worst Of War

January 25th, 2052 - 10:23:01

SFC. Catherine Fox

Delta Force

Moscow, Russia

--

January 25th, 2052 - 10:23:01, Moscow, Russia, on Fox's birthday and two days after Vietnam's surrender to the Winslow Accord, SCAR Team ft. Blade tracks down and ambushes the Sergeant First Class' retired C.I.A. Special Agent parents, Carl and Maxine Fox, just before they can enter their condo in downtown. With SCAR 5 herself blowing up their limousines and taking point.

Catherine: Throwing C4.

[C4 Explosive Charge detonation]

[Hellion fire]

[MK14 EBR fire]

[G28 fire]

[Stoner LMG A1 fire]

[AK-105 fire]

Maxine: WHAT THE FUCK?!

Carl: GET INSIDE! GET—

[MDRX fire]

Carl: ARGH!

Maxine: NO— *screaming in pain*

With the snow and wind settling down and no one to save them, Carl and Maxine Fox get a good look at their freed daughter before she headshots them.

Maxine: No. Cathy, what are you do—

[MDRX fire]

Carl: NO! Catherine, listen to me! This isn't—

[MDRX fire]

Blade: How do you feel?

[Fox and Blade hug]

Fox: Relieved. Let's go home, Alan.

Blade: Just waiting on you, Catherine.

Nightfall: SCAR Team, move out.