We set out for Russia that night. Morningstar handed my Dad a uniform and as soon as we were all dressed we were on the plane and headed for Russia. I had contacted Vasil and brought him up to speed on a black river location that was on the edges of the Russian coast. We weren't exactly sure what was going on, but Black River's file archives suggested it was an arms storage facility. He had told us that he'd get his team together and meet us there. We landed in Russia at about 5PM the next day. The sun had started to go down when we stepped out of the helo. The air was cold and fresh. I could hear a ton of birds around us as well. That was good, they'd hide our foot steps from the enemy.

"Damn", Nina said, "nice out here."

"Perfect day to storm some docks", Mako said, "Ace, what's the rally point?"

"500 yards north", I said.

"Then let's get moving", my Dad said, "we got no time to waste."

My team and I hiked the 500 yards with ease. Around the location of the rally point were a few shacks that looked like they'd been sitting there a while. The wood that made up the walls and supports was weathered gray while the tin roofs were rusted out. The windows were covered in dead algae and a few wind chimes still fluttered about in the breeze. In the middle of the small village, I saw a pile of leaves move and the tell tale end of a surpressor stick briefly from the pile before disappearing. Now I was able to count three more snipers, one to our right and two more way at the end. A sniff of the air revealed eight total scents, the four snipers, Vasil, who was in the house to our left and three more guys who were in one of the middle buildings of the village.

"Hey Mako", I said, "smell that?"

Mako and the others sniffed the air.

"Yeah", Mako said, "smells like angry Russian."

"Vasil", I said on the radio, "were at the rally point."

"Rodger that Ace", Vasil said as he and his men revealed themselves. Vasil jumped down from the porch and came up to us, shaking my hand, "how are things my draconian friend? I had hoped you would not require my services so soon."

"Me too", I said, "Vasil, this is my Dad, Johnie Miller, 82nd Airborne."

"A pleasure sir", Vasil said, "my name is Vasil, Spetsnaz operator for 20 years."

"Nice to meet you brother", my Dad said shaking his hand, "so son, what's the mission here?"

"There are some docks about a mile North of here", I began, "I suspect Black River is using them as a weapons storage facility, given drone surveillance and local reports of laden trucks coming into and out of the area under the cover of night. Vasil, have you had time to run any recon of the AO?"

"Only some", Vasil said, "It's a Blackriver location for sure, however, the security level concerns me."

"In what way?", Arnett piped up.

"It's unusually high for an arms warehouse", Vasil said, "I counted several X-01 units and multiple Reborn snipers on the rooftops during my scout. I suspect they may be storing aircraft weapons, possibly vehicles, something that merits extra security over simple rifles and a cache of ammunition. You don't spend all those resources for some rifles."

"Your right", Hunter said, "you don't, you have high profile security when some of the higher ups are visiting."

"So who are these higher ups?", I asked.

"Captain James Deimos", Hunter said, "a pissed off little prick whose favorite method of murdering people is beating their heads to a bloody pulp. He's rather high up in the BR chain of command, which means he's got codes, names and protocols that even I didn't have. He'll be heavily guarded though, won't be an easy fight."

"Sounds like we need to get going and thin the herd out", I said charging my M220.

'I agree", Vasil said as he motioned for his team to regroup. Our two teams then quickly cleared the mile to the docks. When we arrived in the AO, the sun had begun to go down, giving us some cover as we approached a ridge that overlooked the operation. The dock itself was carved right into the cliff face. There was a large brick building built on the edge of the cliff with a helo pad onto that was currently empty and the docks stretched about 60 feet into the water and each was about 30 feet wide, sizable, but not enough for any ship bigger than a small cargo vessel to dock. Some 20 yards out into the water on massive concrete pillars was the actual warehouse. It was about the size of an airplane hangar and had an all glass roof with a large window on the upper part. I could see inside from where I was and I could just barely see the tops of what looked to be metal crates. They had taken care to hide the contents of the building from eyes on land, but any fool with a plane could fly over and have a look see.

'Vasil", I whispered, "do you have any air support in the area?"

"I don't think so", Vasil said, "however....how far up can your Comrade's Chinook fly?"

"Uhhh", I thought, "maybe 3,000 feet? Is that high enough to come across as a bird?"

"No", My Dad said, "damn, what I'd give for a Predator."

"Without aerial support", I said looking through my binos, seeing that the structure was heat shielded, "our only chance of finding out what's in that warehouse is entering."

"Easier said than done with all these X-01's prowling around looking hungry as fuck", one of Vasil's men said, "good god look at them all."

"Son", Dad said looking at me, "what the hell is an X-01?"

"Something created by the sociopaths at black river", I growled, "their scientists are more concerned with if they can rather than if they should. It leads to shit like X-01 and X-02 Reborn."

"And whatever the fuck X-03 is", Mako said, "don't forget about that."

"How could I?", I sighed.

'What's X-03?", Vasil and my Dad asked simultaneously.

"We don't know yet", I said, "we've only had the chance to get into one of their servers and that server had nothing about X-03."

"Either way", Vasil said, "let's get this done. My men and I will wait for you and your team to make the first move before we open fire."

"Got ya", I said, "Dad, come with me."

My Dad and I snuck around the cliff face until we were right above two reborn agents. My claws came out as my Dad pulled his knife out. On the count of three we both pounced. I raked my claws across the throat of my victim, reached inside and ripped his spine out while my Dad drove his blade through the back of his target's helmet. All this took place at the exact second that another Reborn and X-01 unit happen to come out of the ware house and see us.

"Alarm!", the Reborn shouted, "commies are here!"

"Well you know what they say if your gonna fuck up", I told my Dad as I hauled out my Machine gun.

"Get it out of the way early", My Dad replied as the X-01's lead the charge against us. Reborn and human soldiers poured from the warehouse. The bullet to oxygen ratio of the air adjusted significantly as my team came out of the brush to engage the enemy combatants and Vasil's team stayed hidden. While the Reborns and humans fell quickly in the hail of lead, the X-01s did not. Their bulletproof hide kept them safe from the lead, but maybe not from our liquid nitrogen.

"Hey guys!?", I shouted, "is cold water bad for the reptiles?"

"Lets' find out!", Nina said as she and Arnett came running to my side. From our gaping jaws we released a river of frozen nitrogen at the two charging X-01 units. Contrary to what I had seen on Thunderfoot's channel, the creatures didn't exactly take a minute to freeze. Huge icicles spurted from their chests and sides as their blood froze and expanded inside their veins. The X units stopped dead in their charge, leaned forward and broke in half when they made contact with the concrete walkway.

There wasn't time to stop and admire our handi work as four more X-01 units and human infantrymen came out of the tall brick building that was overlooking the ocean and the rest of the docks. There was a metal catwalk and a couple of platforms that connected to the docks that I hadn't seen from the hill. My Dad was quick on the trigger and the humans were down quickly enough, but that left four charging X-01s. The girls and I were out of breath from our last encounter and Jayden and Mako could never make it here fast enough, the only ones close enough to attack were Void and Navi.

"Void, Navi!", I shouted over the crack of my 220, "rip these fuckers a new one!"

"Rodger Ace!", Navi shouted as Void let off a loud roar and the two of them barreled down from the cliff face, across the docks and grabbed two of the X-01 Units by their necks, tearing their heads off their shoulders with frightening ease. They then turned on the other two X-01s who struck back just as viciously, one of them managing to land a nasty swipe across Navi's face, causing her to recoil and yelp from pain while the other sank her teeth into Void's leg. Void hissed from the pain and chomped down on his attacker's head in retaliation. Void's teeth went through his attackers skull with a morbidly satisfying crunch as his sister reared up on her hind legs and sent her balled up paws crashing down on the skull of her attacker. The X-01 snarled and hissed as he recoiled and Navi reared back for another strike, which was canceled out when a round tore through her shoulder and chest. It wasn't a lethal shot, but it was more than enough to take her out of the fight. I looked up and saw that there was a Reborn with a .50 caliber bolt action on the roof of the building.

"Jayden!", I ordered, "counter snipe that fucker on the office building's roof!"

"Got ya!", Jayden said over the radio. I could see the laser from Jayden's weapon point at the man's head and not a second later the slug ripped through his helmet and dropped him out of sight. Navi limped behind the safety of her brother who was slowly backpedaling away from the wounded and pissed off X-01. I growled at myself. I was still out of breath from spraying the last two X units that I could barely produce a spit wads worth of LN, nothing close to the jet stream I needed to take down the Unit.

"What the fuck are we waiting for!?, Dad shouted, "let's shoot this fucking thing!!"

"It's hide is bullet proof", Nina said doubled over, "it's only vulnerable to extreme temperatures or..."

Nina stood up, "Firing M203!"

Void grabbed his sister and jumped into the water as Nina launched the 40mm grenade with out the first concern for how close the X unit was to us. I jumped in front of my Dad and covered my face with my arms as the 40 went off, blowing the X Unit into bloody paste and sending pieces of concrete flying everywhere. Nina and Arnett were spared any damage, I however, wasn't so lucky.

"Damn", I said bringing my arms down, "way to think on your feet love."

"Crazy American's", one of Vasil's men said over the radio, "I wouldn't wanna fight these people."

'Tha...", Nina stopped in the middle of her sentence, only pointing at my chest. When I looked down, I saw I had a foot long, about, piece of concrete stuck deep inside my vest and there was blood pouring at my feet. It wasn't that wide, maybe an inch or so, but that didn't change the fact that it probably wasn't a good idea to leave it there.

"Fuck me", I sighed as I crumpled down, getting caught by Nina and Arnett.

Arnett and my Dad started digging into their medical kits as Nina took my hand.

"This might be a problem", I said, trying to stay as calm as possible and keep my heart rate down.

"All I have to do is get it out without killing him Nina", Arnett said, "if I can do that he'll be fine."

"Oh just give me some fucking morphine and pull it out", I said flatly, 'I can take it."

"Shut up josh", Dad ordered.

"I don't take orders from you", I said, "you take orders from me, in fact, I think I just gave you one."

Arnett looked at my Dad and sighed, as if she were asking for permission.

"Arnett", I said, "please get this spike out of me before I bleed to death."

Arnett sighed, took hold of the spike and yanked with everything she had, pulling it out with little difficulty. Every muscle in my body seemed to lock up with the shot of pain and I couldn't even flinch from it. It was that bad.

"Holy fuck", I growled through gritted teeth, a tear falling down my cheek, "morphine, please,....now Arnett!"

Arnett gave me two shots of the Dragon grade painkillers and shortly after it took effect, allowing me to sit up. Arnett put a halo seal over the hole and I stood back up, picking up my machine gun.

"Remind me to get that looked at when we get home", I said, "Vasil, you take your team and sweep the building with Jayden, Hunter, Taro and Mako. I'll take the girls and my Dad and clean out the warehouse, leave a piece of that Bastard for me if you find him first."

"Rodger", Hunter said.

The rest of my team and I sprinted the distance to the door of the warehouse where we could hear people moving inside.

"Stack up", I ordered.

"Stacking", Nina said as she, Arnett and Navi went to one side while my Dad, myself and Void were on the other.

"What you wanna do Ace?", Navi asked.

"Flash them and then you and Void rush them, the rest of us will follow you up."

Void bared his teeth, "I like this plan. Simple, painful."

My Dad pulled a breaching charge from his vest and set it on the door, pulling the pin. A few seconds ticked away before the charge blew the doors off it's hinges. Nina and I threw several Nine Bangs inside and waited for them to go off before Void and Navi rushed in. We flanked in behind them. They had taken out two X-01 Units, leaving only a Reborn Unit with a mini gun and one man in a suit who was turning to run away. Nina and my Dad quickly killed off the Reborn as I took off after the man, running him down with little trouble. As soon as I sank my claws into his shoulder, he whipped around, a look of hate and anger in his eyes.

"How dare you touch me scum!", he barked as he raised his fist and threw it at my head. I caught it, broke his arm and smashed his face into one of the many crates. The man reeled from the pain as I grabbed his shoulders and kneed him in the gut as hard as I could. The man coughed and crumpled to the ground.

"Moron", I sighed grabbing him by his suit and lifting him up the ground, "dude...your in a heap of trouble."

"Do you know who I am?", the man growled, 'what I can do to you?"

"I could ask you the same question", I grinned showing my fangs, "by the time I get done with you, anyone whose head you may have bashed in will be resting easy knowing I got revenge for them."

"Do your worst American", the man growled as he spit up blood.

"Oh I will", I said as I hauled him out of the corridor that the crates had made, finding my team standing around a very heavy, vented box.

"Hey Ace", Nina said, "come check this shit out."

I dragged the man over and peered inside the box. Inside was what looked like a scaled down version of the ECU in my Honda, just without the metal box for covering. It looked really futuristic though.

"Fuckhead", I said picking the man up, "what is that?"

"I don't know", the man said.

"Sure you don't", Navi growled, "what is it?"

The man didn't answer.

"Answer the lady's question", I ordered, "what the hell kind of motherboard is that?"

The man just laughed.

"Grab it", I said, "well take it back with us along with this self absorbed little twit. Vasil, we got a fucker here who thinks he's hot shit. Might be Deimos."

"Does he have a barbwire tattoo on the top of his head?", Hunter asked.

"I dunno", I said, "lemme check."

I knocked the man's hat off his head. Sure enough, there was a tattoo of a piece of barbwire on the top of his bald head.

"Yeah", I said, "we got the fucker. It's Deimos. Call John and have him bring that Helo, we got two prizes today."

"Two prizes?", Jayden asked.

"Some futuristic looking computer chip", I said, 'when we get home I'm turning Mako loose, what ever it is, I can't help but think that we may have just stumbled across a piece of X-03."