I took the time while we were waiting for Nina, Carlos, Vasil and Riley to get some sleep and eat, as I'd had very little of both since we captured Deimos and learned about X-03 and 04. Black River made two attempts over the course of the day to retake the Camp where we were hiding out at as well as the Artillery guns, which Calen and the others eventually gave up and destroyed, oh well, they were nice while they lasted. It was about 8:00PM, shortly after the sun had set, that the air began to gurgle and vibrate and the smell of diesel fuel set in over the camp.

"Hey Ace", Mercury said patting my shoulder, stirring me from a rather light sleep, "smell that?"

I sniffed the air, "yeah, smells like Diesel. I can feel the air vibrating too."

"Nina and the others are closing in", he said, 'grab your gear and let's move out."

I grabbed the suppressed M4 I'd taken from the mule earlier today and followed Mercury outside, where I found the others gathered around the mule having a quick snack. In the distance, I could see the 260's headlights poke through the cloud, it was rather quiet until it got close, at which time we began to hear the massive diesel prop engines. The giant plane flew right over us without even slowing down, dropping a large plastic crate out the back along with two dragons and two humans. Nina, Riley and the Box hit the ground at almost the same time, while Carlos and Vasil touched down shortly afterwords.

"You scared the shit outta me Nina", I said pulling her into a hug, "are you sure your feeling okay?"

"Yes Ace", Nina said, "you don't have to worry about me."

"Yes I do", I said, "don't argue with me."

"I brought you a gift", Nina said unzipping the duffle bag, handing me what I could only describe as the Nano rifle from Red Faction.

I laughed, "hell. Fucking. Yes."

"So what's the mission my American friend?", Vasil asked.

"Were headed to a Black River port, the mission is purely recon, find out where these crates were going and where the bombs were headed. Don't kill anyone if you can help it", I said, "pile on the jeeps, let's get rolling."

We piled into the jeeps in mostly the same way that we had when we'd shown up, spreading out the four extra squad mates evenly, or as evenly as we could, over the three jeeps. I found out upon getting close to the camp that someone else was already in the AO. On the outskirts of the town, hidden behind a hill with a sand colored tarp over it was another Jeep, newer Wrangler model, lifted, Manual transmission, full time All Wheel Drive and Cummins Inline four upfront. It was a six seater and didn't have mounted guns, but in the back were two neatly packed duffle bags with American flags on them full of ammunition and supplies. The magazines were about 98% STANG magazines, but there were also several magazines for the Frenchi FAD and ammo boxes for what I guessed must be an M249 SAW.

"We've got another team in the AO", I said as I looked through the jeep.

"Who could it be though", Nina asked, "Delta Force?"

"Let's see what Alex knows", I said getting on the radio, "Alex, you there?"

"Here Ace", Alex said, "what's up?"

"There's another Spec Ops team in the area", I said, "Possibly Delta Force."

"What would Delta Force be doing in that area?", Alex asked.

"I don't know", I said, "what should we do?"

"Proceed with mission as planed", Alex said, "I'll call the crew of the 260 and tell them to circle around and support you."

"Rodger that", I said, 'were moving in now."

I turned to my friends, "Safeties and cloaker on if your a dragon, we don't give Tier 1 a reason to attack us, we are not experienced enough to go toe to toe with them."

The dragons switched their cloakers on and we moved into the town. The town was set up with three main lanes with a group of six houses in between each lane, while the two biggest buildings in town were on the furthest lane from us. At the west end of the town was the Port itself, there were two huge BR freighters docked there, their lights bathing the entire town in annoying white light, but from my perch I could also see everyone moving around. Most of the Reborns seemed tired from the night shift, while those who were doing actual work on the docks must have been on the nocturnal schedule. Another thing I noticed were two guys hiding behind a box. Looking through the ACOG on my M4, I could see one of the men had a desert camo ARX-160 assault rifle with a VMR sight, a surpressor and a foregrip. He was wearing a desert tan tech print uniform with a Condor outdoor carrier that had a eerily familiar yellow, black and white tribal pattern on it. His helmet was a DEVGRU Scout helmet with a mask, built in hearing protection, a two way visor so I couldn't see his eyes. The man behind him, armed with a camo M27 IAR, with the same parts, minus a surpressor and a .44 magnum on his hip, was dressed much more simply, vest, coat, shegmah, but full military headgear. Across from him, behind another set of crates, were two guys dressed exactly the same as the first, minus the tribal war pattern and helmet. They were carrying as desert camo SA-805 with what looked like a thermal Scope, 45 round magazine and a Mk-13 grenade launcher, while the man behind him was carrying an MSBS Pilots rifle with a VMR and Magpul foregrip.

Across the street from them, up on a perch, were two snipers in tan uniforms with rags tied to their gear. One of them, a female, was armed with a standard looking Barrett .50 cal while the other, a male, was armed with a Clapper, a bull pup Dragonov.

"These guys are well equipped and look very well trained", Nina observed, "get load of the guy in the Tribal war paint."

"Figure he's the leader of the group?", My Dad asked.

"Probably", I said as the man gave two hand signals to the snipers, who then dropped the two Reborns in front of his crate. Before the bodies had time to hit the ground, the man and his friend had pulled them behind the crates, the scary thing was even with as close as we were, we didn't hear the gunshots.

"Okay", Vasil said, 'I didn't even hear the reports of those weapons."

"Neither did I", Riley said, "Ace?"

"Negative", I said slinking down, "Mako", I called into the radio, "eyes on possible Delta Force Team, I need you to get their radio frequency so I can contact them, let them know were on their side."

"Hold up", Mako said. I could hear buttons on the other end of the line, "okay, your cleared."

"Attention Tier-1 team", I said into the radio, "My name is Deuce, I'm a US Army Special operator, I'm on your six on the roof of a building with my team about 50 yards from your current position."

There was a pause before a voice replied.

"Deuce", the man said, "this is Frost, what is your objective in the AO?"

"Our objective is to discover the destination of several Nuclear Warheads we recently discovered", I said, "I suspect the information can be found on that freighter's computer."

There was another slight pause.

"How many are on your team?", he asked.

"13", I said.

"That's too many", Frost said, "take two and meet me down here, I assume you can see where I am."

"Rodger", I said, "Nina, Void, you guys come with me, the rest of you hold this position in case we get visitors."

"Let me come", My Dad said.

"No", I said, "I want you here with the others."

"You need me", My Dad said, "I know how these kinds of people think!"

"Your right I do need you", I said, "but it's here, I've faced Black River before Dad, quite a bit before you had any skin in this game, stay here, that's an order!"

My Dad couldn't bring himself to acknowledge my order vocally, but he did reluctantly nod. I took Nina and Void and jumped off the roof of the building. Slinking down to the boxes where Frost and his team were hiding as quietly as we could. When we slid into cover behind the other guy who was with him, we learned they had a combat dog, or tamed wolf from the looks of it, with them. The thing was about 1.5 times the size of cloaked Void, and the two seemed to be rather interested in each other. Frost motioned to the man with the SA-805, who was a white guy, but seemed to have a little bit of Japanese in him and the man scanned the deck of the ship with his rifle, before holding up two fingers.

"Two tangos on the deck", Frost said turning back to us, "one of you kids go with Nitro and Riley, the other comes with me."

"I'll go with you sir", I said.

"Excellent", Frost said.

"Stay away from my fiance", I said looking the other man in the eyes, through his iridescent red and blue helmet visor, "touch her and I'll cut off your nuts."

"You can try", the Tier 1 Operator said coldly as he hopped over the crates and Nina followed.

"You tag along and you do what I say when I say it", Frost said looking at me, I couldn't see his eyes under his visor, which is what I suspect his intention was, "once this starts, there's only one pace, mine, got me?"

"Yes sir", I said affirmatively.

"Excellent", Frost said, "come on."

Frost bounded over the crates we were hiding behind with an elegant level of agility. Riley was the most agile dragon in the project, but just this mantle put him to shame. Before I had even cleared the crate he was already 15 yards out, almost to the boat ramp and moving completely silent, some of which had to be agility, the rest I determined to be soft boot treads.

"Alex", the woman on the roof said over the radio, "the guard up there has changed positions, he's coming right for you."

"Got ya", Frost said as he raised his ARX. As soon as he had cleared the top of the ramp, four low thuds left his rifle and I heard a soft, metallic thump as the BR guard hit the steel deck.

"Target down", Frost said, "Shelby, can you and Jack get me eyes on any activity in the freighter's bridge?"

"I can see four...no scratch that, five contacts on the bridge, four of them are armed, one of them appears to be tied up, possible hostage."

"Rodger that", Frost said switching the channel on his radio, "Dad, we have a possible hostage on the freighter."

"I'll call it in", a deep voice said from the other end of the radio, "good work son."

"I've also acquired another Spec Ops team", Frost said, "led by a kid 'bout Raf's age, code name Deuce."

"I've been informed by his CO Morningstar already", Frost's Dad said, "Deuce has a pretty successful track record against Black River, so if he starts talking, listen, that's an order."

"Rodger that Overlord", Frost said, "Echo 1-1 copies all, out."

"Don't push your luck kid", Frost said, "you'll find my knife will slide through those scales of yours rather easy."

"How the fuck did you", I started, but was quickly cut off as Frost tapped his helmet.

"My headgear, your Holo tricks don't work on it", he said.

I wasn't sure how to reply. Alex and I moved up the stairs, dispatching two Reborns and then to a door. Alex pulled NV goggles over his Visor and then tapped on the door lock. A faint crack split through the night sky and the lock was ripped out of the door, Alex pushed it open and then switched to his sidearm, a P226 with a 20 round clip, giggle switch and a surpressor and he held a wicked combat knife that was worn out in his off hand.

"I like to keep this for close encounters", Alex said as we moved into the interior of the ship.

"Too right brother", I said.

Just inside the corridor were a few guys, Reborns who were asleep.

"Slot 'em", Alex said, "I'll give cover."

I slunk into the room and raked my claws across the throats of the Reborns.

"Targets down", I said/

"Shelby", Alex said, "Deuce and I are moving up, Nitro, what's going on with you?"

"Everything's going perfectly", Nitro said, "The package was right where intel said it would be."

"Raf", Alex said, "Radio check, Nitro found the package, right where you said it'd be. What's going on with you?"

When the radio clicked on, I heard gun fire.

"Not good Alex!", a younger sounding guy said, "Black River's trying to eliminate us and the Russians at the same time!"

"Do they know where you are?", Alex asked.

"I don't think so", the other man said, "I've been stepped on a few times, but thanks to the Gillie suit, I'm pretty sure they don't know where I'm at."

"Then head for Rally Point Bravo and trust no one!", Alex said, "hunker down and hide as long as you can, I'm coming to get you as soon as I finish here."

"Rodger that", Raf said, "Hope I can hide that long."

"Let's pick up the pace", Alex said, "Shelby, Raf's been compromised, Black River's turned on the Russians and it sounds like it's a free for all, you and Jack are cleared for all contacts inside the ship."

"Rodger that", Shelby said.

Four quick, consecutive cracks split the dark air, followed up by the pings of .50 BMG ripping through cheap steel.

'Target's down", Shelby said, "be advised, hostage is dead."

Alex sighed, "Rodger that, get ready to cover our escape."

"Got it", Shelby said, You've got five minutes to secure that intel."

"We don't need five minutes", Alex said unlocking the door and following me inside. The control room looked strikingly similar to the one form the Nathan James from the TV show the Last Ship.

"Looks like the Nathan James", I said looking around.

"I've seen that show", Alex said quickly frisking the bodies of the dead Black River men, finding a small book, "got ya. Shelby, I found what we need, call Baker and get him to bring the Sea Hawk around, it should more than fit all of us."

"Rodger that", Shelby said, "were coming in. Charges are going in , 3, 2 ,1."

I felt the barge shake as what sounded like a gas tank explode. When Alex and I got on Deck, Nina and his friend Nitro were waiting for us, along with the rest of my team. I could see now that every light in town had come on and Black River Mercs were pouring onto the streets by the numbers. Holy hell, there were a lot of them.

"They out number us", Alex said, "but we have the brains, the skill and the firepower to take them down, Time to work Tier X."

I wasn't sure who fired the first shot, but once that bullet left it's rifle, I got to see first hand how Elite's ran their show. Saying that Alex and his team were terrifyingly good at ending people would have been an understatement. People seemed to be falling six at a time and mostly to head shots it seemed. Nitro was doing a bang up job with that belt fed of getting people to keep their heads down, the two snipers Jack and Shelby were downing someone with each round they fired, while the Scout with the SA805 and the dude with the Pilots Rifle were dropping people insanely quick as well. My team joined in too, taking more accurate shots under the cover of their gun fire.

"Time to test this bad boy out", I said flipping the switch to turn on the Nano gun. I put the sight on the torso of one of the mercs and pulled the trigger. The gun mad a very dull thunk like sound and sent a bright orange streak flying at the man. Once it made contact, the man simply dissipated. He didn't even have time to scream because it dissolved him so quickly.

"The hell was that?", Alex shouted as he reloaded his ARX.

"Nano tech!", I said letting off the rest of the magazine as fast as I could sight and pull the trigger. My cloud of Nano bots, combined with the lead storm from the rest of the team, forced BR to keep their heads down just long enough for an Electric Chinook to show up.

"Ride's here", Alex said, "time to GTFO."

Under Nitro's covering fire, we loaded onto the Chinook, which quickly retreated.

"Get what rest you all can", Alex said, "were gonna be dropping into a hot AO in a few hours and I need everyone as rested as possible. Shit's about to get hairy."