Difference between revisions of "Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 5"

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Previous Chapter: [[Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 4]]
 
Previous Chapter: [[Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 4]]
 
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I was currently back at Angel HQ in Japan. It had been a year since the crash landing. We had waited but no attack had ever come. The harbor was filled with boats, the airfields with ships. Still nothing ever came. Just small skirmishes. It was more worrying than having them just attack. Most of the fighting was going on in the western front.
 
  
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I sat at an old oak desk, in the only thing that marked me as an officer, my office. I was going over reports and paperwork when I came across a casualty count for the Reaper program. I sighed and started to rub my head.
+
I set Siren down against a boulder and looked around at our makeshift camp. We were in a depression hidden about a hundred yards down in the side of a canyon. It was about 25-30 yards deep and had a plethora of boulders at the entrance to hide the Hellhounds. A handful of marines stood guard at the entrance while the rest of us made the camp a little more comfortable. Of the 25 marines 17 still standing, 3 others were dead and the last 5 were wounded, with one of those likely to die without proper medical care.
  
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"Bureaucratic red tape got ya' down." I looked up to find Rouge in the door.
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I picked up a Stim-pak and jammed it into Siren's thigh she snapped upright and jerked out of my grasp. I pulled her up and pulled her helmet off, putting my hands on her shoulders and calming her down. When she was finally calm I took my own helmet off and looked her in the eyes.
  
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"Cruiser died in the European front. I need to send a new commander for the western Death Battalion. 12 dead in the west. 2 got sniped and 1 had a premature detonation from his C4 pack. 7 dead here in the east including Joey."
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"You ok."  
  
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"Not Uplink."  
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"What happened. I remember taking that shot in the leg then nothing." She said taking a sip from the canteen I put to her lips.
  
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"Yeah. He took a artillery shell in the shoulder. His squad brought back the body in three pieces." I said sliding the request for a new commander to the side.
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"You fell catching a three shot burst in the abdomen. None of them got through but the pain probably caused you to pass out. Your shoulder is dislocated, and the joint in your knee is pretty messed up from your fall. You also sprained your ankle with that miss step." I said taking a sip myself and dropping down next to her.
  
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"Wolf, General Harrison would like you to see something." Sev,our artificial intelligence, said pulling a file up on my computer. I typed in my serial number and password.
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"Ouch, I guess it's going to hurt when I come down off of the Stim. What about the rest of the team." I gave her the canteen and looked at our ragged team. Rouge was standing with Frost carefully removing the damaged armor from his shoulder.  
  
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"Welcome DA-E27. Would you like to view SJ78654754, or read the report first." A woman's voice, probably Harrison's AI.
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"Rouge's fine but his helmet's faceplate is shattered. Frost is fine, some bruises and a couple of broken toes from a run in with a brickwall. Not much can be said about the wall. Dog however looks like he took one in the shoulder. It's not to deep but some slivers from his armor are stuck in his shoulder. His hip look likes it took a sledgehammer but nothing life threatening. You won't be able to go back for round two, neither is Dog, but you can help us. Seeing as we are low on supplies and you aren't particularly in need I think Rouge might need your helmet." I took the canteen from her hand and leaned my head back to find it empty. I looked over at her accusingly and dropped it into her lap. She smiled innocently and handed me her helmet. I took it from her."I'm just glad I don't have to carry you any more, you weigh a ton."
  
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"The video please." I said sipping some of my ginger ale.
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My only reply was the empty canteen to the head.
  
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"Very well."
+
"What no kiss good bye." This time it was a rock the size of a fist that had been laying next to her. I got my hand up just in time and staggered back.
  
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A video popped up. I immedeatly recognized it as a infantry helmet's cam recording. The mission clock read 715. It looked like a regular day. I saw what looked like a town, or what had been a town. The buildings were in shambles and the streets choked with rubble. The helmets owner sat in a ditch. He held his carbine down the street. The air was thick with smoke and fire.
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"Ok, Ok, jeez." I turned to find Rouge standing there with his hand out. I tossed him his helmet and put mine on. I felt a hand on my thigh and looked down.
  
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"What the heck is going on. They rolled straight through our defenses. Not even our airsupport or our artillery could stop them. They just kept coming." a voice said over the comm.
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"Don't die." I stood there for a moment.
  
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"Stow it Private. You had time to be scared before you joined the 173rd." A commanding tone replied.
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"Never planned on it."  
  
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Suddenly the wall of smoke down the street was shredded by bullets.
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"Good cause I can't kick your ass for that fat comment" I shook my head and jogged to catch up with Rouge.
  
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"Open fire." The commanding voice yelled.
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"She OK?" He asked when I fell into step next to him.
  
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The firefight was violent as men fell and rubble landed around the helmets owner.
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"She is threatening me, soooooooo.... yeah pretty much 100%." I picked up my gun and checked it.
  
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"We are not giving up. This is the last sector. We will fight for every last inch. No surrender. No retreat."
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"This time we don't mess up.
  
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Suddenly the dust and smoke was so thick no one could see and the camera spun. Something had happened. The helmets owner picked himself from the ground. He looked to the side. A building had collapsed killing the last of the defenders. All but the cam's owner.
 
  
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"Sarge. Sim. Oh no. Crap. I'm dead." The man said turning. Shadow's appeared in the dust and smoke and began to walk towards the young man. He stood and fired at the hulking blackness but they didn't stop. He fired until the clip was dry and slapped another one in. He again opened fire but there was still no effect. The soldier dropped his weapon and bolted through the alley behind him. He took a few turns and found himself surrounded by smoke again. He pulled a side arm and began to fire as a shadow appeared in front of him. Suddenly a stream of fire pushed through the smoke and the young man fell backwards screaming. His helmet cam was knocked loose and rolled to the side giving Matt and Jamie a good view of the flaming corpse of its owner. Suddenly the black mass stepped forward. A mass of grey steel and armor. The hulking form was human like and stood a good seven feet tall and almost wider than a car at the shoulders. On its back was a canister and attatched to its left arm was a flamethrower. Smoke swirled around its helmet. It looked towards the camera and brought its foot down crushing it beneath its foot.
 
  
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"Jesus. The 173rd. That's Nurenburg's boys. How in the world did the Russians get past the new age stonewall." Rouge said.
 
  
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"That is what we are trying to find out." A voice said from the door.
 
  
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"Gen. Harrison sir." We both said snapping to attention.
 
  
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"Sit down boys." He said. He was in his late 40's. His black hair was in a short buzz and he looked much older than he had a few days earlier.
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I waited for the last truck in the convoy to come to a halt. As soon as it did I stood up and walked to the driver side door. I opened it and punched the suprised driver I then pulled him out and tossed him in the nearby ditch before turning and shooting him with my silenced side arm. As I took his place behind the wheel I looked over to find Matt sliding into the seat beside, having taken care of its occupant in a similar manner. I nodded to him annd waited in the line for our turn to pull up to the gate. It was a genius plan. We had been waiting in that ditch for the last 7 hours waiting for the convoy to pull up. The guards at the gate never would expect two men to take a truck waiting in a convoy.  
  
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"That was picked up by our scavanger team. The whole town of Sumy Ukraine was levled. There is no enemy prescence. Just decimation. We lost contact at around 5 in the morning. As you can see the whole battle was over by 750 hours. We didn't find a single enemy body. This is the sixth attack like this. A town is hit. The enemy hits hard, fast, and ferociously. The fight is short, and the enemy, unstoppable. The town is raised and left empty. There are no survivors or prisoners. The only man to have come back was found in a sewer babbling and muttering about metal men." He pulled a cigar out of his jacket pocket.  
+
When it was our turn we pulled up. The guard who came up to check us looked up as I rolled down the window. His mouth flopped open as he looked into my black facemask. I counted the seconds as the grenade in my hand cooked off.  
  
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"Why would they leave it. Why not fortify it and use it themselves." Rouge asked.
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"Delivery." I said tossing it to him. It made it about 2 feet from his face before it blew up. Now on movies you see people dieing from the shockwave of an explosion. The truth is that if you survive the actual explosion that it is the shrapnel, not the shockwave. This fact was proved once again as the shrapnel took out the other two guards. I saw one go down holding his face and screaming, while the other just gurgled and collapsed.
  
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"They don't care they only want us dead. The question is, what was that thing at the end, and how powerfull is it." I said
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I pulled through the half closed gates and stepped out of the truck. Matt and I dove behind a building and slipped around the corner as the guards on the towers started firing.
  
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"It could be a new walker type. Smaller and more armored." Rouge suggested
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"You owe me 10 bucks." I said as I fired over my shoulder and took off towards the west side of the outpost.  
  
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"No it would take to much to move it they couldn't be that small."
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"I still can't believe that worked a second time." Matt said kicking a grenade back towards our pursurers
  
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"Precisely. I need Four squads of Angels to check out a town close to all the attacks. It is rumored there are very little Russians there, but just before the attacks started it started getting large shipments of supplies. I believe its for the Metal men." He said. "Choose carefully and get geared up you leave at 600 hours for the western front."  
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"You know perfectly well that with me the stupidest and craziest ideas become reality."
  
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We ducked down into a trench and waited till the men following us passed by before standing and firing burst after burst into their backs. No one ever accused the Russians of being smart. We lowered our weapons and waited for any sign that one of them survived. I reloaded and noticed that I only had two clips left. I saw someone poke their head up and fire an RPG at us from the building behind us. I crouched as it passed over my right shoulder and felt the heat wash over me and something bit deep into my back. I was pushed over by the explosion and found myself lying on Rouge. I pushed myself up and helped him up. I put my hand to my lower back on my left side and felt blood dripping in between my fingers. Matt pulled himself into a crouch and fired snapping the man's head back with his fourth shot. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me upright before pushing me forward and firing behind us. I stumbled for a bit before I found the tank we blew up yesterday to hide behind.
  
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"Where is everyone." I said leaning around the side of the tank while Matt checked my back.
  
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"Don't know. Don't move." He said pulling my plate off to check my wound."DUDE, there is a big piece of shrapnel in your back. Your lucky this didn't hit anything important."
  
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I sat in a dropship flying low over the Kazakhstani countryside to some unknown town. I was nervous. We were going in with no info and only each other and the five dropships for back up. I saw the town up ahead.
+
"OUCH. That hurt." I grunted as he removed the offending piece of metal. All he did was hold out a jagged piece of metal the size of my hand. He handed it to me and started to patch me up."That thing is huge. How did that not kill me."
  
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"We have the DZ in sight. It's just outside of the town.We can't go in unless it's absolutely necessay." the pilot had rubbed me the wrong way since take off.
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"Because I'm not lucky enough to get rid or you." Matt said putting the plate back in place and patted my shoulder to signal he was done. I stood up and settled my gun onto the back of the tank and looked at my HUD. five unknown dots appeared to be moving from different directions at our back, all of them converging on our location.
  
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"Good. Alright get tactical Angels." I said checking my gear. I had a XM11 Carbine, two silenced P323K pistols strapped to my thighs, and a jackhammer shotgun slung over my pack. We all had new Scythe-IV armor. It was invincible. It could take anything but a straight shot from a tank. The only problem was we couldn't take the impact.
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"We are surrounded. Two on our six, one on our nine, two more on our five, and the last one is at our seven." I said looking around for some better cover. This was obviously a special team. We couldn't get caught with our pants around our ankles.
  
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The ship dropped down and hovered as we jumped out. I signaled Alpha to hold the Drop Zone. Fox dropped in on our left flank and Orca our right. We spread out and headed towards the city. It didn't take long to reach the edges of the forest. We had about 300 yards of open fields between us and cover in the town. Well not really town. It was more of a base. Concrete bunkers, barbed wire, sentry post's. I had the Rouge and Zim from Fox team go check out our flanks and see if there was a better way into town.
+
"Up ahead and to the left is the
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They returned unsuccessfull. "What the heck is Harrison thinking sending us in with no intel. He dropped us on the wrong side of the river. We have to go here or else we get to meet some armor." Rouge said
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I swore."They have armor. OK this is it boys and girls. Spread out and stagger your selves. Snipers stay behind us and cover us. The best cover we got is that shed over there and that little wall. Other than that get into town."
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We spread out to keep from all going down in the first hit. 300 yards. Even with Genetic engeneering it would take us 170 seconds.
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"Go" I yelled sprinting for the nearest building someone in the bunker opened fire but one of our snipers took it out before It could hit anyone. Another one was similarly silenced but not before a few rounds bounced off my armor. I heard a crack and saw one of Orca team's head jerk. He fell and slid a few feet.
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"Snipers Kick it in." I was worried. These helmets could take sniper rounds to the head without trouble. It would take two or three shots, even the faceplate. 30 yards and I heard another crack.
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"Wraith take him out." I said.
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"Can't find him. He isn't within range of my sniper." She said back iceily. She was pissed. Someone was out sniping her.
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I reached the bunker and tossed a grenade in before sliding to the cover of the cement wall. I turned back to see number 90 on the ground crawling towards cover. His whole left leg gone.
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"Come on. Come on."
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Another crack and his head exploded.
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"What the. What kind of sniper is that." I heard Orca's squad leader yell over the comm.
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"Ace hold it together. I know your team is down to half strength but you need to get the rest out so don't lose your cool. Now lets move" I was still worried though. He was right. That bullet took out our armor and not just killed 90, it obliterated him.
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We were moving through the streets but we couldn't find anyone. It was eerily quiet. We crept towards the center of the town but at least the sniper wasn't dismembering us. The snipers had moved into town and set up shop in a tall building on the outskirts with Orca as guards.
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"The hell is that." Rouge said over the comm. I turned to find the same hulking form as on the Sumy video. There were three of them and they all looked the same except for the fact that the one in the middle had a flamethrower and two tanks on his back while the other two had chainguns on their right arms and one tank on their backs. One of them took three quick steps and smashed the Big Dog into the wall. All we saw after that was his crumpled form and a two foot dent in the wall.
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"Get to cover." I yelled diving behind a sand bag position. I had always wondered why the positions were so thick here. I tried to crouch beind it when I saw number 74 from Fox team catch a barrage from one of the chain guns. The bullets just impacted on his armor but after a few seconds they broke through and started to shred his chest. His body jerked and tremors ran through him but the wall of lead from both chainguns kept him upright. A few more seconds and the chainguns whipped around and started destroying the sandbags I was behind. The beheamoths were uncaring of the fire from the rest of the Death Angels as it pinged off their armor. I saw 108 and 40 from Fox both get caught in the path of the flamethrower. The Scythe armor's thermal conditioning held up but it wasn't long before the men inside were cooked inside, leaving two scorched but unhurt suits of armor.
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"The bullets aren't even hurting them." Someone yelled over the Angel comm.
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I saw Big Dog rise up from the hole in the wall. His entire left side was crushed. He took out his lighter and put it in his left hand. He had to flick the zippo open with his right hand and he jumped up wrapping his arm around the Flamethrower and holding the lighter up.
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"I'll see you in hell." He yelled ramming his arm into the tanks on the things back. The next thing I saw all three of the hulking things were vaporized as flames burst across the whole street. We all stood  and looked at the burnt and crushed form that had saved our lives. I kneeled down and pulled his holo-tags.
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"Let's go. Daniel wanted us to accomplish the mission. Now lets do it." I said
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"This is creepy" Rouge said, checking his clip.
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"I don't like it either, but I guess their is nothing we can do." I replied
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"This town is mostly empty except for a few super teams." Siren said
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"Go." I yelled as we stormed the building that Harrison had marked as the target.
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Latest revision as of 14:35, 23 March 2010

Homepage: Reaper's First Drop

Also see: Atlantis

Previous Chapter: Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 4

I set Siren down against a boulder and looked around at our makeshift camp. We were in a depression hidden about a hundred yards down in the side of a canyon. It was about 25-30 yards deep and had a plethora of boulders at the entrance to hide the Hellhounds. A handful of marines stood guard at the entrance while the rest of us made the camp a little more comfortable. Of the 25 marines 17 still standing, 3 others were dead and the last 5 were wounded, with one of those likely to die without proper medical care.

I picked up a Stim-pak and jammed it into Siren's thigh she snapped upright and jerked out of my grasp. I pulled her up and pulled her helmet off, putting my hands on her shoulders and calming her down. When she was finally calm I took my own helmet off and looked her in the eyes.

"You ok."

"What happened. I remember taking that shot in the leg then nothing." She said taking a sip from the canteen I put to her lips.

"You fell catching a three shot burst in the abdomen. None of them got through but the pain probably caused you to pass out. Your shoulder is dislocated, and the joint in your knee is pretty messed up from your fall. You also sprained your ankle with that miss step." I said taking a sip myself and dropping down next to her.

"Ouch, I guess it's going to hurt when I come down off of the Stim. What about the rest of the team." I gave her the canteen and looked at our ragged team. Rouge was standing with Frost carefully removing the damaged armor from his shoulder.

"Rouge's fine but his helmet's faceplate is shattered. Frost is fine, some bruises and a couple of broken toes from a run in with a brickwall. Not much can be said about the wall. Dog however looks like he took one in the shoulder. It's not to deep but some slivers from his armor are stuck in his shoulder. His hip look likes it took a sledgehammer but nothing life threatening. You won't be able to go back for round two, neither is Dog, but you can help us. Seeing as we are low on supplies and you aren't particularly in need I think Rouge might need your helmet." I took the canteen from her hand and leaned my head back to find it empty. I looked over at her accusingly and dropped it into her lap. She smiled innocently and handed me her helmet. I took it from her."I'm just glad I don't have to carry you any more, you weigh a ton."

My only reply was the empty canteen to the head.

"What no kiss good bye." This time it was a rock the size of a fist that had been laying next to her. I got my hand up just in time and staggered back.

"Ok, Ok, jeez." I turned to find Rouge standing there with his hand out. I tossed him his helmet and put mine on. I felt a hand on my thigh and looked down.

"Don't die." I stood there for a moment.

"Never planned on it."

"Good cause I can't kick your ass for that fat comment" I shook my head and jogged to catch up with Rouge.

"She OK?" He asked when I fell into step next to him.

"She is threatening me, soooooooo.... yeah pretty much 100%." I picked up my gun and checked it.

"This time we don't mess up.




I waited for the last truck in the convoy to come to a halt. As soon as it did I stood up and walked to the driver side door. I opened it and punched the suprised driver I then pulled him out and tossed him in the nearby ditch before turning and shooting him with my silenced side arm. As I took his place behind the wheel I looked over to find Matt sliding into the seat beside, having taken care of its occupant in a similar manner. I nodded to him annd waited in the line for our turn to pull up to the gate. It was a genius plan. We had been waiting in that ditch for the last 7 hours waiting for the convoy to pull up. The guards at the gate never would expect two men to take a truck waiting in a convoy.

When it was our turn we pulled up. The guard who came up to check us looked up as I rolled down the window. His mouth flopped open as he looked into my black facemask. I counted the seconds as the grenade in my hand cooked off.

"Delivery." I said tossing it to him. It made it about 2 feet from his face before it blew up. Now on movies you see people dieing from the shockwave of an explosion. The truth is that if you survive the actual explosion that it is the shrapnel, not the shockwave. This fact was proved once again as the shrapnel took out the other two guards. I saw one go down holding his face and screaming, while the other just gurgled and collapsed.

I pulled through the half closed gates and stepped out of the truck. Matt and I dove behind a building and slipped around the corner as the guards on the towers started firing.

"You owe me 10 bucks." I said as I fired over my shoulder and took off towards the west side of the outpost.

"I still can't believe that worked a second time." Matt said kicking a grenade back towards our pursurers

"You know perfectly well that with me the stupidest and craziest ideas become reality."

We ducked down into a trench and waited till the men following us passed by before standing and firing burst after burst into their backs. No one ever accused the Russians of being smart. We lowered our weapons and waited for any sign that one of them survived. I reloaded and noticed that I only had two clips left. I saw someone poke their head up and fire an RPG at us from the building behind us. I crouched as it passed over my right shoulder and felt the heat wash over me and something bit deep into my back. I was pushed over by the explosion and found myself lying on Rouge. I pushed myself up and helped him up. I put my hand to my lower back on my left side and felt blood dripping in between my fingers. Matt pulled himself into a crouch and fired snapping the man's head back with his fourth shot. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me upright before pushing me forward and firing behind us. I stumbled for a bit before I found the tank we blew up yesterday to hide behind.

"Where is everyone." I said leaning around the side of the tank while Matt checked my back.

"Don't know. Don't move." He said pulling my plate off to check my wound."DUDE, there is a big piece of shrapnel in your back. Your lucky this didn't hit anything important."

"OUCH. That hurt." I grunted as he removed the offending piece of metal. All he did was hold out a jagged piece of metal the size of my hand. He handed it to me and started to patch me up."That thing is huge. How did that not kill me."

"Because I'm not lucky enough to get rid or you." Matt said putting the plate back in place and patted my shoulder to signal he was done. I stood up and settled my gun onto the back of the tank and looked at my HUD. five unknown dots appeared to be moving from different directions at our back, all of them converging on our location.

"We are surrounded. Two on our six, one on our nine, two more on our five, and the last one is at our seven." I said looking around for some better cover. This was obviously a special team. We couldn't get caught with our pants around our ankles.

"Up ahead and to the left is the

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