When Alex said we were dropping into a hot AO, he certainly wasn't joking, literally or figuratively. Not only was it about 120 degrees when we were over the drop zone, but the area was crawling with Reborns, X-01, X-04 and Spetsnaz, all of whom were duking it out with everything from foot soldiers to heavy armor. Bullets were pinging off the hull of our Chinook from 100 feet in the air, only growing closer and closer together the closer we got to the ground.

"Were' here for Raf and his team only!", Alex said, as the hatch came down, "Task Force Shadow, you have your objectives, for the rest of you, Time to work Tier X!"

Before the helo had even touched down, Alex and his buddy Nitro were out, dropping Russians and Reborn's as quickly as they could. Once we were all out of the Helo, the pilot took off, headed back the way he'd come. The area was way to hot for Evac to stay on station and wait for us, which was where my team came in. Our job was to get to where Alex's brother Rafael had been hiding, grab his laptop, which apparently had Black River's base location on it, then move to the landing strip at the far side of the junkyard and secure it. The problem was, between us and the strip were hundreds of enemy fighters, dogs, Juggernauts, X-01 and 04 units and lots and lots of flying bullets.

"Stay close", I shouted as I turned on the Nano Gun, "use the plane parts for cover."

"Rodger that!", My teammates replied.

"Mako", I said, "I need you to get the signal from that laptop and put it up on my HUD."

"WiFi, Bluetooth or TXV?", Mako asked.

"TXV", I said, "720 hertz."

"Okay hold on", Mako said as we looped around behind some plane fuselages to get out of the gun fire. We took up a circle formation as Austin tapped me on the shoulder.

"Josh", he said, "let's climb up high and get an over view."

"Good idea", I said slinging the Nano gun over my back. Austin and I scaled the old plane body rather easily and stayed on our stomachs once we were up top in hopes of drawing less attention. From where I was, I could see several tanks doing battle with two Abrams M2's bearing Black River markings as well as one T-72 getting ripped apart by X-01, who were swatting the competing X-04 out of the way as they pulled out the crew and ate them like small sausages. The T-72's could still swat aside the X-01 with a single shot from the main gun, which a few of them on a ridge near the edge of the scrapyard were doing, and doing quite well.

"Go ahead and try that shit on me", Austin growled, "I'll put these blades down your throats."

"I'd like to see how you'd....", I was cut in the middle in my sentence as Mako came back over the radio.

"Ace! A Black River gunship is headed in from the south! Find cover!"

"That's our cue", I said as we slid off the plane body, "Alex", I said getting on the coms, "Black River gunship is headed in from the south!"

"I heard", Alex said, "we don't have the equipment to deal with a gunship, try to stay off it's radar."

"Got ya", I said.

I turned to my team, "If you catch sight of that fucker, let me know and I'll turn the Nano gun on it, Mako, I need the location of that laptop! Like, right now brother!"

"Almost got it", Mako said as a blue icon with a "50m" popped up on my HUD.

"There you go", he said, "by the way, Morningstar wants to talk to you."

"Put him on", I said.

"Got it", Mako said as a video feed from Morningstar's office popped up.

"What do you need General?", I asked as I ordered my Dad to pop smoke so we could safely cross a clearing.

"Son I don't need to tell you how close this fight is to over", Morningstar said, "I've been speaking with your friend Alex West for the past three hours and he's brought me up to date on Tier X's efforts to destroy Black River. If Alex can't recover his brother, you MUST get your claws around that computer. Do whatever you have to do and use any tactic you deem necessary to get a hold of it, it contains the last piece of the puzzle we need to get before we can knock these bastards out for good. Do us proud son."

"Yes sir", I said as we crossed through the smoke screen. The path we followed took us through a narrow passage between a fence and a whole scrapped plane fuselage that was full of Spetsnaz commandos, firing from a very well entrenched position.

"Shadow 1-1", Morningstar said, "move your asses, that position is being targeted by the enemy gunship."

"Run for it!", I shouted as I took off down the trail. It led upwards into another plane body that dropped off into a half enclosed area that had a Black River Tank and a squad of fresh troops at the end of it.

"Fucking hell!", I shouted as I opened up on the tank with the Nano Gun, shrouding it in a thick cloud of metal eating Nano bots which quickly turned it to scrap metal, but not before it sent a round down range which smacked into the plane part that still held my Dad, Void and Riley. When the round exploded, shrapnel went everywhere and the concussive blast knocked me flat on my back and ripped the Nano gun out of my hands, which left me not only seeing stars, but also defenseless against the X-01 that was running with it's horn's lowered right at me. I didn't have any control over my body, so it should be obvious that the X-01 skewered me with almost no problems. It's two horns shattered what had to be at least three ribs on each side and it popped my left arm out of the joint, rendering it useless. There was blood flowing out of the two holes in my gut like a garden hose. If I could get it off of me within the 15 seconds, I'd live, but if not, I'd probably bleed to death. So in a desperate bid, I grabbed it's skull in my mouth and chomped as hard as I could. My jaw easily crushed it's pathetically weak skull and the X-01 slumped to the ground. I managed to crawl backwards and get the horns out of my gut, and then to cover, where Mercury noticed me.

'Holy fuck!", he shouted, "Ace is down!'

"Patch me up quick brother", I said coughing up blood, "get me back in this!"

"Are you crazy!?", Mercury asked, "you can't fight in this condition!"

"Yes I can", I said, "close the holes, that's an order Private!"

Mercury reluctantly bandaged my wounds and gave me a shot of pain killer, which also accelerated my healing factor. The broken ribs would be bothersome for a while, but I wouldn't bleed to death. As soon as I had recovered enough to get on my feet, I grabbed the Nano rifle and jumped back into the flaming scrap, in search of my Dad, Void and Riley, almost instantly wishing I hadn't. My Dad was still very much alive, but he had third degree burns on his neck and face, which he seemed to be ignoring, but what he wasn't ignoring, and screaming over, was the fact that his left arm, about 4 inches below the elbow, was hanging on but just a few grisly fibers. He had his kit out, trying to rig a splint one handed. Riley had been impaled by his neck on a piece of rebar, blood dripping out of his mouth his eyes were closed, his body was lifeless, he hadn't made it. Void had a very bad gash out of his side through which I could see his ribs and some of his internal organs. He was fighting to stay standing, hissing and whimpering at the pain.

"We've got casualties!", I said, "Hunter! Mercury! Get up here!"

Hunter and Mercury climbed up into the Fuselage, Mercury's face turned pale when he saw Riley.

"Riley!", he squeaked, "oh god not you, oh god please no!"

"Hunter", I said going to my Dad's side, "help Void, I got my old man."

"Not how I pictured losing a hand", My Dad coughed as he held into his hand to keep it from falling off, "fucking hell this hurts."

"Hold still", I said finishing the split and handing him a thick piece of rubber, "bite down on that, this is gonna hurt."

I gave my Dad a shot of painkillers and then set his arm back into position before strapping it up with the splint. I picked up his AR-15, which was unharmed except for the wasted EoTech and handed it to him.

"Can you shoot one handed?", I asked.

"I better learn how real fast", Dad said taking his rifle.

"Void's good to go", Hunter said.

"I've got Riley", Mercury said, "let's grab that fucking computer and GTFO."

Inch by inch, bullet by bullet and painful step by painful step, we fought our way through Angry Russians, Rabid X-01's and toxic Reborns. Rachel, Nina, Taro and Austin took the lead, us wounded and our Escorts in the middle and Vasil, Carlos, Calen and Vortex brought up the rear. We moved and acted as a single unit. Due to the pain in my ribs, it wasn't possible for me to support the Nano Gun, which is why it went to Rachel and she gave me her Kris Vector for the time being. Those of us who were hurt kept our tactical visors open at all times, calling out enemy positions and equipment as well as the Gunships position in the sky, which had done nothing but restrict our ability to take a straight path to the computer's location and make life miserable for those of us who were hurting.

But at last, we had the computer in hand and Rachel, being a secret tech wizard, was able to swipe the hard drive and down load the data in under 30 seconds.

"Time to secure a runway", she said as we left the hide out and made a beeline for the landing strip. At the other end, I could see the Tier X team had beaten us to the punch and had already started cleaning house with some nasty looking Juggernaut armor, one of them had a Riot shield, one had a mini gun and Alex had only a knife along with another suit I hadn't seen before, but damn was he moving quick.

"Vasil", a Russian man said over the radio, "I see you do NOT have the situation under control."

"Not the time for this Nikolai", Morningstar said over the radio, "Kids, both Venom's C-260s are inbound to pick you up, there's no time to come back here to resupply, you'll be leading an armored assault on Black River's base with the 5th Army Rangers."

"Sir", I said, "we have several wounded, myself included, were not in the shape to be going right back in."

Morningstar sighed, "I know Ace, be that as it may, I need you on the front lines coordinating the effort. Who else is wounded?"

"My Dad and Void", I said, "My Dad needs medical attention right the fuck now, but I'm not sure about void."

"I can fight", Void said barring his teeth, "don't even think about taking me off the front lines!"

"Anyone else?", Morningstar asked.

I cringed as I worked up the courage, "Riley....he's dead sir."

Morningstar paused, "what the hell am I gonna tell Trace? Thanks for letting me know Ace. Your rides are 20 seconds out. They can't land, so be quick about it."

'Sir yes sir", I said opening the radio to Alex, "bro! Evac is 20 seconds out!"

"Got ya", Alex said.

"And speaking of rides", Hawk's voice said over the radio, "I've heard you've got a troublesome gunship?"

"Hawk!?", I asked in surprise.

"Thunder 1-1 is wheeled up in the overhead and ready for tasking", Hawk said.

"Your weapons free for the Black River Gunship!", I said as the C-260 came into view, gliding down to pick up Alex and the Tier X team.

"Rodger that", Hawk said, "Thunder 1-1 is visual friendlies and tally on the big ass flying death machine, because who says a Warthog can't do combat with Puff the Dragon?"

The air vibrated as the prop driven gunship buzzed our position, chased by Hawk's blacked out, angry looking jet, the humidity of the air leaving a vapor trail around the tips of her wings. I saw the four missles brake loose and then she flew over the top of the plane, letting the rest of her wing mounted ordinance rain on the BR Gunship, which went down in a black fireball.

"Going down in a blaze of glory!", Austin shouted, "that's the best fireworks show I've ever seen in my life!"

"Target reduced to high quality scrap metal", Hawk giggled, "I love my job."

"Ride's here", I said as the huge 260 passed by us and we boarded without difficulty, finding that it was playing host to two M1 Abrams tanks as well as a modified, twin barreled Tiger looking tank and a whole slew of Marines.

"I need a medic over here", I said, "two wounded."

Two of the Rangers with the Marines started helping my Dad and Void, while a third took Riley's body from Mercury as Hunter and I inspected the modified tank. It was armed with two, 155mm cannons, twin 20mm cannons, twin Coaxial 7.62mm machine guns and four miniguns chambered in 5.56 along with a mounted Barrett 50 caliber with dual drum mags. The turret had chains hanging off the back and there were SIX turbochargers hanging off the back of the tank like nuts. The tank was also, according to one of the rangers, permanent All wheel drive and could hit sixty miles an hour in a little under 7 seconds and maxed out at 120 MPH. The defining feature though? The LED light bars....set into a fucking wicked looking bulldozer scoop that had just been welded onto the front of the tank with zero fucks given.

"THE DEVIL DOZER BITCH! COME BACK TO HAUNT YA!", Hunter squealed.

"Not quite", the Ranger said, "meet the Abrams M4A1 Main battle tank, the only prototype we got."

Hunter didn't answer and just kept drooling over the tank.

"Your in charge of it as well", the Ranger said tossing me the keys, "I know you can drive stick, so I'll just tell you the idle is a little rough in 2nd gear."

"I won't be idling brother", I said as the man handed Rachel, Nina, Hunter and myself tank jumpers. We started getting changed as Alex got up on top of the Tank in front of the Dozer and started talking.

"Listen up people", he said, "I don't need to tell you how crucial this fight is. Black River is fucking with shit they shouldn't be fucking with. You saw what happened at Charlie. We got an infestation of god knows what, so we gotta hit him with everything we got and we gotta hit them now. Parameter one, disable AA defenses for our air support, Black River is ground force enemy only, they have no air power so the Force will tear them a new asshole and we will rule the air! Parameter two, disable the monorail leading out of the base to prevent escape of high ranking BR commanders and Parameter three is to get the hell outta dodge before the Force rains hell fire down upon them! RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!"

"RANGER"S LEAD THE WAY!", the people in the plane chanted.

"Gear up!", Alex said, "sixty seven minutes to target."