Fearsome Might

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This is a Fanfic/Roleplay. Please try to be realistic, don't conflict with anyone's post, and have some fun.

Prologue
"If we do not end war - war will end us. Everybody says that, millions of people believe it, and nobody does anything." ~H.G. Wells

From the Diary of Sgt. Thomas Morgan

''I try to think why I joined the Marines in the first place. Was it for patriotic duty, was it for it glander, or was it for killing? I still don't know to this day, and I don't think I'll ever know.''

''It was Winter 2011, just like any year. Everyone was happy and peachy, as far as we knew. Sure, Russia was stomping on some rebels, but we didn't really care. Then, a event happened that made everyone cringe. A rebel leader by the name of Abdul-Mu'min took over his native land, and killed the president. The worst part was that this guy was a fucking nutjob, and the country had a fair amount of Nuclear Warheads. Needless to say, the U.S. began to wind up it's little war machine. That's why we are in the Persian Gulf Right now, listening to the fine sounds of jet engines.........''



"Welcome to the 1st Marine Division, "The Old Breed" as we like to call it," said Sgt. Thomas Morgan to his troops "w,e're on the U.S.S. Washington, about to assualt the country of Jaarastan, in case you were sleeping the whole damn time. We are going to be the first ones in hell, and we're going to be first leading a 200 mile assualt inland. There's heavy opposition, believe me, this is no small military force. This is going to be a long fight, and alot of us are going to die. But I damn sure that it's not going to be us, am I right Marines?"

The Marines saluted in unison ", SIR, YES SIR!!!!"

Thomas smiled ",Good. So now that we understand the situation, let's load up. There's Blackhawks ready to take us to the port town of Tiliz, we need to capture it so the rest of the force can move in. So come on, MOVE!!!!" The Marines scurried to the choppers. Thomas smiled, he loved is job so very much. He then started walking toward the helicopter.

Spender was preparing for takeoff from the carrier; "Forward cannon: assigned, Chain guns: assigned, Hellfires: assigned. Gentlemen, we are ready for WWIII!" As 6-7 Marines entered the helicopter, John saw one who stood out, "Thomas! Great to see ya again!" Yelled Spender over the rotor blades. "Small military ain't it?" Thomas paused for a moment, looking at the enormous invasion force. "Well, not really." "Hehehe, alright well, we can talk on the ride over, right now I need 2 guys on those door guns." Spender replied.

"Got it," Thomas replied ", Johnson, Myers, man those guns." Pvt. Johnson and Pvt Myers came running toward the chopper, and immediatly they manned the guns. Thomas turned toward Splender ", now we can go." Thomas sat down in the Blackhawk, and it took off, heading for the first part of their horrible conflict.

Chapter 1
Spender flew among a swarm of helicopters and jets, with an armada of landing craft below him, but soon a hail of bullets and rockets enveloped his helicopter, and the stakes just got alot higher for him, and the US. "Hang on to something! We're about to hit the coast!" Spender fired off 4 Hellfire rockets and the soldiers behind him began shooting out the doors of the chopper. "Sarge, listen, I've been given authorization to prioritize targets as I see fit, I'm gonna strafe that radar truck, and then I'll let you off at BCT3's rally point at the Ibn' tower in the financial district! Get ready!"

"Got it" yelled Thomas over the helicopter rotors. He loaded his M4 carbine, and made sure he had some extra ammo. "Alrighty," yelled Thomas ",get tactical Marines, we're going in hot!!" The rest of the Marines did the same, making sure that they had extra ammo. "Hughes, you ready?" asked Thomas to his next closest african american. He was polishing his M429 Machine Gun, and looked up and said ", always ready." Thomas smiled, Gregory Hughes was always right. "Ok," Thomas said, addressing his Marines ", you know the drill, we've got to secure some positions so that the rest of the invasion force won't get their asses kicked."

Splender paused the helicopter in mid air, waiting for the Marines to drop off. Two Marines threw ropes down to the ground, even as gun fire pierced the air. "Down the ropes, go go GO!!!!" yell Thomas. Immediatly, the first Marine jumped off the Blackhawk, sliddling down the rope, the others followed him.

"Alright Thomas, here's our situation: this building is almost 1500 feet tall and is the tallest structure in the city, the upper floors are jam packed with AA guns, and radar and comm equipment. We didn't bring the kind of firepower to take this thing down, so we gotta blow it up from the inside, that means planting charges on load bearing beams, and knocking out the damper on the top floor, that damn thing is what keeps this building upright in the event of ehem...seismic activity. And uhh, one last thing, here's a present." Spender then signaled for a second helicopter to drop off 4 Delta-Force commandos in to the quiet courtyard of the skyscraper, almost unaffected by the battle raging less than a mile away. "I got your back the whole way, when you're done pop a flare on the exec landing pad and I'll evac you."

"Got it," said Thomas. He watched the helicopter fly away, and he signaled the group to head towards the building. "Yo, Delta's," said Thomas ", I'm going to need to have you guys take out the damper while we take out the bearing beams, is that clear?" One of Delta Soldiers, probably the leader, nodded.

It took them about 3 blocks until they were near the building. They're were soldiers in any location you could probably think of. "This is going to be a rough one....." said Huges. "Damn right," said Pvt. Myers. Thomas wasn't paying attention to the conversation, since he was surveying the building. There were some MG's posted some towers, about two technicals guarding the door, and some soldiers patrolling the area.

"Ok, we're going to move on my mark," said Thomas, grasping his rifle. The others did the same, holding themselves againist the wall. Thomas was nervous, since he had no idea what the hell was going to happen. "Now," he breathed, and started running toward the building. Gunfire was flying from both sides as Thomas and the rest of his Marines were running.

Thomas slide, and took cover behind a container holding god know's what. He fired over the container without looking, trying to at least hit one soldier. "Taste this you motherfuckers," yelled Hughes, as he chucked a gernade from behind his cover. There was a loud explosion as the gernade blew up the technical, and screaming followed afterwards. "Come on, let's move up!!" yelled Thomas. They started to run toward the door.

There was still gunfire coming from the other buildings, and the artillery barrage from the battleships was deafening. "Navy must be trying to make us deaf," laughed Pvt. Myers. Cpl. Hughes nodded, while Thomas laughed in acceptance.

They were inside the lightless building now. The artillery barrage most have knocked out the power for the city, but the comms were still working up above. "Lights on," said Thomas ", I don't want any of us getting ambushed in close quarters." Almost immediatly, the hallway was lit up by the tactical flashlights. The light revealed a disarray hellhold, stuff throw around here and there, tables overturn. "Jesus, these guy must have been shitting themselves when the invasion came," said Pvt. Myers. "Shut it, Myers," said Thomas "we don't know where the hell these soldiers are, if there are any left."

As they began starting down the stairs, Thomas contacted the Delta's. "Delta 4, we're going to need you guys to stay outside for some cover. We only need to take out these damn beams, and we're out of here." He heard static over the radio, then over the sound of small gunfire, he heard ", roger that, we already have enough shit out here."

After going down a few flight's of stairs, they finally got to the beam's location. "Thank god, I was beginning to think that the Navy should just bomb the shit out of this place." Pvt Myers then began to run toward one of the beams, when suddenly a enemy soldier came from behind one of the beams. He screamed something in Arabic before pelting Myers with AK rounds. "Nooooo!!!", screamed Thomas, before shooting the soldier. The bullets flew through his chest and neck, and he flopped to the floor; dead.

Thomas ran over to the dieing Myers. Myers had blood coming out of his mouth, and he was gasping for air. "They...got me.....they fucking got me," he said. Thomas was near tears, since he had know Myers for about a year. "There's nothing wrong with that, Myers. You just had some bad luck." Myers looked at Thomas, with is crazy smile. Then, he drew one final breath before dieing.

Thomas watched the building go down in flames as Cpl. Hughes detonated the C4. He heard cheering from the rest of his Marines, but his mood was unchanged. He was angry, no, pissed with these Son's of a Bitch's. But, he had to forget about Myers, he had a job to do.

"Good work, Sarge," said General Farson ", if I had a few more men like you, we'd be winning this war by now." "Thank you, sir." he said. When he knew that Farson was gone, he started to head for his Marines. "Alright, listen up, if you think we're done, you're sadly mistaken. We still have to capture the captial, which is about a million miles away from this port. We've just be assigned to capture a town closeby, which is one of the main area's of enemy resistance. We'll be piggy backing on some armor to it, so I hope you all feel confortable on metal."

Cpl. Huges was already reloading his gun ", you kidding me? I used to go to work at a construction yard." Thomas nodded "yep, but half of us havn't always sat on metal." There was some chuckling, then the Major directed them toward a nearby Stryker. When they got inside of it's dimly lighted interior, the door started to close slowly. Thomas felt like they we're being enclosed in a tomb.

The convoy started to move after the colonel had a nice photo op with some AP's, which was a nice piece of bullshit for the civies. Above the convoy, Blackhawks and Chinooks flew above them.

Chapter 2
From the diary of Thomas Morgan.

''I fucked up today. I let Ian Myers go running toward one of the New's buildings beams, and he was planted with bullets. I thought that ,even though I knew that this was going to be a hard battle, that I was not going to lose any men. Needless to say, I was wrong.''

''Now, we're heading toward the town of As'amadish, a couple miles up the road from Tiliz. After that, a couple more cities before we it the damn desert, and that god forsaken mountain range I heard about. Then, after that, we'll be in the war torn paradise........''



The Stryker was jumping up and down like a horse in a rodeo. The road had been blown to peace's by the enemy, as a piss poor way of stopping the invasion. Thomas was sitting in the dim red lighted troop hold, studing the map of Jaarastan. It was a pretty big ass country, since it had engulfed much of the surrounding countries during it's "Revolutionary Wars" in the 80's. So, it was now the Marines job to traverse this FUBAR geography.

"Ok," said the pilot of the Stryker ", I've got orders to drop your asses off at a camp near here. There, or so it's said, your supposed to grab anything you can, and meet a 'Lieutenant Hamlin', downtown. He's having a rough time getting the Jaari's out of their positions, so he said he needed some help."

"Got it," said Thomas. Thomas felt a tap on his knee, and turned to see that it was Hughes. "Permission to speak, sir?" asked Hughes. "You know you don't have to ask me that all the time, Hughes," Thomas said ", but, go ahead." Hughes nodded, and said ", doesn't it seem like there's a little to much opposing fire coming from the city. I thought we took artillery out already?"

Thomas shrugged ", must be some AA's covering the artillery pieces." But Hughes wasn't finished ", so, what's stopping the Jaari's from sending their airforce to pelt the shit out of us?" Thomas was about to blurt something out, but instead he said ", I.....don't really know, Hughes." Hughes looked at Thomas quizically, and then sat down.

Still, the thought of a bomb tearing at his Marines haunted Thomas. He went back to his map, and tried to forget about it.

Spender's voice gradually cleared on to the staticy radio. "Thomas, hey Thomas do you copy? I repeat, do you copy? It's me, over." John heard Thomas reply, "Go ahead John, I read you." Spender continued: "I heard about the success of the tower demo op, hell, I saw it myself, that falling damper took the thing out like a fuckin' wrecking ball... but um, I'm sad to say that I also heard about Myers. I wish I could've been there." He heard Thomas sigh on the other end of the radio: "Sitrep?" "Sure, well, this place might just be a few houses in the middle of a desert, but Jaarastan wants it, and so do we. In addition to being a rest stop along the road to defeat, this town is a enourmous weapons cache for the Jaari's, they practically turned it into a barracks. One other important note, is that several prominent U.N. officials and journalists have gone missing in this part of Jaarastan; the local government blames it on local insurgencies, but the CIA's long had a hunch that there's a POW compound somewhere in the city limits. Once the push into the city starts I'll be there for ground support. Right now I'm doing recon. Good luck."

"Thanks," said Thomas, before flicking off his radio. He layed back in his seat, more work for him to do. "Alright, time to drop you guys off." The Stryker slowly stopped, and the clanks of the door opening were heard. Outside, tracer bullets glittered the sky in a beautiful array. A F-16, which somehow flew too close for comfort, rocked the vehicle has it flew by.

"Jesus, this place is getting torn apart," said Hughes. "What kind of treatment do expect from a POW camp and cache town?" said Thomas. They started running toward the camp, which was just a bunch of tents basicly. A marine came running toward Thomas, and said ", Sergeant Thomas?" Thomas replied ", that a' be me." The Marine saluted, "I have orders to show you to the supply tent, so that you can fill up before you head for Lieutenant Hamlin, sir." "Well then," said Thomas ", lead the way."

The sound of gunfire flying above Thomas's head haunted him. They were inside the town now, since they had justed filled up on all the ammo they needed. "Check your surroundings everyone, we all know what happens in the dark." The only light came from the gunfire and the flares flying through the air. The light gave each building a shadow, and it turned the entire street into some nightmarish landscape. "This fucking shit is freaking me out, Tom," said Hughes, aiming his gun at the windows of houses they walked past. "Me too, I really hope we're close to this guy, or else we're fuc......." Thomas stopped talking for a second, which caught Hughes attention. "Thomas, what's wrong?" But Hughes suddenly knew what Thomas had heard. Turning onto their road was a T-72 tank, with about twenty people near it. "Shit, take cover!!!!' yelled Thomas, as he dived behind a wall. The T-72 fired off a round, blowing up a chunk of an entire building in the process. When the Jaari's caught site of them, they started to fire at them also.

Thomas stood up from his cover, and managed to shoot at least two Jaari's in the process. Hughes was naturally doing his own thing, which was overwhelming the enemy with his M249. Pvt. Young, the newest member of the group, was frantically trying to call for some kind of air support. "Negative, this is Lightning one, requesting close air support on a T-72. No, I'm not at the frontline right now. Sir.... we really need this airstrike."

Thomas was too annoyed to let this stupid conversation go on any longer. Thomas grabbed the radio from Young, and yelled into the radio "Sir, if you don't get me a fucking airstrike immediatly, I swear to god all mighty that when I find you, I'm going to shove this radio up your ass!!!!" There was static over the radio, but Thomas eventually heard "Roger, there's an A10 in the area, so that should do it." Then, like a musical note played at the beginning of a play, Thomas heard the A10's engines.

He then caught sight of A10, and saw it fire two missiles. The missiles collided into the tank, and it made a beautiful explosion. "Yeeaah Baby, that's what I'm talking about!!" said Hughes. Thomas wasn't really worried about this small victory, since he knew there was still a long way to go. "Come on," he said ", we've got to keep moving."

Spender was tracking Thomas's squad on his thermal cam, "Thomas, Watch it! BTR heading your way!" A BTR then cut Thomas's squad off in the street, "Get to cover, engaging." Spender then flipped a switch and fired the wing-mounted chain guns. "You're clear man. But...wait...hold on, I'm intercepting a foreign radio transmission...amping signal...broadcasting." Spender heard the sound of the Jaari dictator telling his people to fight on, that the westerners would destroy their homeland. "Yeah, yeah, fuck you too." He then killed the signal and shot two rockets at the towns' radio tower. "Go on Thomas, I'll be directly overhead."

Thomas was running quickly toward the location of Hamlin's Marines. He was coming underfire from all directions, and he felt like they were being overrun. Hughes was firing his M249 as he ran, sceaming "Motherfucking Jar" or "Take this, mofo."

Thomas caught sight of Hamlin's position, his Marines were pinned down near a cafe. The gunfire was coming from a small shopping building, which he guessed was a market. "Splender, I need you to take that market out for me, I can't get those Marines if it isn't out."

Even without a response, Splender launched a missile from one of his wings. The market exploded, sending the building crashing to the ground. "Much thanks, Splender." said Thomas, and quickly ran toward Lieutenant Hamlin. Hamlin was surveying a map layed neatly on a table, while another Marine held a flashlight over it. "Lieutenant Hamlin" said Thomas, saluting. Hamlin waved his hand, "At ease Sarge. That was some pretty fine rescue you just did there. Both you and your pilot should get an Bronze Star for that kind of work." Thomas walked over to the map, to see how the battle was going.

"This," said Hamlin, pointing to a small warehouse ", is what I need you to check out. We think it's the possible POW camp, since it's a heavily guarded as we speak." Thomas looked at the map, then at Hamlin, "But, sir, it's just a warehouse." Hamlin frowned at this comment, "Sergeant, did you read General Ford's report about two months ago?"

"No, sir." said Thomas. "Well, is report stated that if we did invaded Jaaristan, which we did, we would find a fair amount of underground complexes, which held all sorts of crazy shit the Jaari's had in mind. This means that they got all those officials somewhere underground, doing god know's what to them now."

Thomas was amazed, he knew that the Jaari's were rich, but he never knew that they were that rich. "So, I would suggest you call your friend flying around up there," Hamlin said, pointing to the hovering helicopter ", and assualt that warehouse, is that clear?" Thomas saluted ", SIR, YES SIR!!!"

"Good, now get going," said Hamlin, before going back to looking at his map. Thomas then preceded to walk away, and then contacted Spender. "Spender," he said ", I think I'm going to need a little extra help...."

"If by 'help' you mean 'excessive firepower', then I got what you need. I'll set down in that lot." Spender then saw Thomas and his squad enter the helicopter and promptly arm the guns. "I'm going to take out the downtown power station, once the transformers are down we'll lend a hand to 5th platoon at the warehouse. That's where our prisoners should be."

Spender's helicopter was closing in on the downtown powerhouse. Thomas had already manned his minigun, and was perparing for some heavy fire. "Ok Thomas, we're almost at the Power Station; get ready for some heavy fire."

Thomas then saw an Jaari convoy heading toward the power station to reignforce it, and began to fire at it. He got the all the trucks in a couple seconds, and the convoy was just another monument of the battle. "I'm going to have to make some evasive action, the Jaari's got alot of RPG's down there..."

The Blackhawk turned to the left to avoid a RPG flying through the air, and it then began to turn toward the power station. "Quick Thomas, hit the generators." The barrel of the minigun began to spin, and a shower of bullets began to hit the power station. Sparks came up as the bullet pierced the metal. "THOMAS!!!," said Hughes ", BMP near the entrance."

Thomas turned the still active minigun to the light tank, and fired at it. The bullet cut through the hull like a butter knife through swiss cheese. Then Thomas returned to the generators, where he finished the rest of them off.

"Damn Thomas, that was some fine shooting down there" said Spender.

The Blackhawk had flown for a couple of minutes before Spender caught sight of the warehouse. "Thomas," said Spender over the intercom ", I've caught sight of the warehouse. It looks like 5th platoon is pinned down on the other side of the road; Jaari's are holed up in there pretty good."

Thomas yelled over the sound of the rotors, "Just face me toward the warehouse, I'll take care of it." Spender gave a thumb's up from the cockpit, and began to slowly turn. Thomas caught sight of the warehouse. He could see the tracers coming outside of the windows, which made it even easier to take out the Jaari's.

He waited for the barrel to start to spin, and began to shoot at the Jaari positions. Glass exploded out as the bullets flew through. Thomas was almost certain that he saw meat coming flying through the window, which was disgusting and satisfying at the same time. That's for Myers, thought Thomas.

"This is Major Easton, 5th platoon; thanks for the assistance, we're moving onto the warehouse now. We'll wait for you to land though." "Roger that," said Thomas.

The Blackhawk slowly began to descend to the ground. When it was close to the ground, it began to kick up dirt. "Move, move, move!!!!" yelled Thomas, jumping out of the Blackhawk. His marines did the same, and after thanking Spender, they began to move into the warehouse.

"Alright; thermal shows warehouse first floor is clear, but I have exhaust escaping from below ground, I think we found our prison." Spender then observed two marines breach the door. "Son, this is Major Easton, 5th platoon, we've entered the sub-basement. You were right about that compound... My god." Thomas then added, "John, we have multiple casevacs but a few are still alive, most of them are captured scouts and journalisits. We'll cut 'em loose and bring them to you for extraction." "Understood, I'll set her down outside and...wait...shit, Thomas hurry up, I have at least 10 blips on radar, probably cruise missiles, headed right for..." Spender's helo was then struck by a missile, with many others striking the rest of the town. It spun out of control, and the tail cut a gaping hole in the warehouse roof as it fell to the ground, taking out the west wall of the warehouse with it.

A few minutes before Spender was shot down......

"Breaching, Breaching!!!" yelled one of the Marines. The metal door hinges exploded, and the door fell inward. The Marines then started to move inside the door, with Thomas second. It took them a couple flights of stairs before they reached the sub basement. They started to run down the nicely light concrete hallway, toward a set of doors. "Son, this is Major Easton, 5th platoon, we've entered the sub-basement. You were right about that compound... My god." said Major Easton.

The minute they came through the door, the Marines were meet with the gruesome sight of a torture room. Two people layed dead, both of them U.N. weapons inspectors. "Help.....us......please." said one of the tied up journalists. Thomas contacted Spender, "John, we have multiple casevacs but a few are still alive, most of them are captured scouts and journalisits. We'll cut 'em loose and bring them to you for extraction."

He waited for a reply from Spender, and then heard, "Understood, I'll set her down outside and...wait...shit, Thomas hurry up, I have at least 10 blips on radar, probably cruise missiles, headed right for..." Thomas heard a loud, muffled explosion a couple of feet above him. "Aw shit," he said to himself. He heard a couple of other large explosions, followed by what sounded like the shredding of steel. Thomas pointed at Hughes, "Get these people untied, and start asking them questions. I need to see what's up."

When Thomas reached the surface, he was horrified at the sight. "JOHN!!!!" he yelled, as he ran toward the crashed helicopter. Some Marines were trying to open the door that lead into the troop hold with the Jaw's of Life, but Thomas wasn't interested.

"Move out of my way," he said, as he pushed a Marine. With one mighty tug, Thomas managed to open the door to the troop hold. Through the fire, Thomas managed to get ahold of John, who looked unconsious. When Thomas got Spender outside of the Blackhawk, he layed him down on the floor. "Come on, John, speak to me!!" he yelled, shaking him.

"Stop shaking me, I'm alive dammit" said Spender, coughing afterwords. Thomas was overjoyed with his friend still being alive "You lucky basterd, how is it that you survive this kind of crash?" Spender shrugged. " I don't really know."

Thomas helped Spender stand up, and then said "Come on, let's go see how my friends are doing." "Thomas, ugh, listen, we're stuck here with no...damnit!...way out. Jaari's are...aahhh!...counterattacking." John struggled as he dragged his M4 along the warehouse floor in the dead of night.

"Wait John," said Thomas ", I think my idea is a little better." John turned around, and asked "What the hell are you talking about Thomas?" "John," said Thomas ", there's large underground complexes underground, one of which we are standing on. When these people made them, I am sure they had another escape route in case of invasion."

John got the message immediatly, "Lead the way." Thomas and John both ran down the stairs, hearing the large group of Jaari's killing the Marines above. "Be advised, any personel near Point Whiskey will be in the area of an incoming MOAB. We're clearing up the area, so you'd better be running," said a pilot over the radio.

"Shit Thomas," said John ", that's are position, and that MOAB is capable of tearing a hole right through this cpmplex." Thomas replied, "Just keep running!!!" They got to the sub basement, where Hughes was waiting for him. "Hughes, get these fucking people out of here, MOAB incoming!!!"

Thomas and John dashed past the group of Marines, and headed through another door. To their amazement, they had just entered a vast hanger type area, filled with Jeeps and Trucks. The most important feature was the huge stockpile of weapons, which the Marines had been searching for the entire time for. "Thomas, we need to grab a truck now."

"Already covered," said Thomas, running for one of the trucks.

"Okay...mph...one of you, grab a transport truck and extract the wounded. The rest...uhhh...get in an armored jeep, I want some payback." said Spender. The 35 or so soldiers spread out across the vehicle bay, one sargeant pointed the ex-prisoners to a large truck, more meant for crates than people, but it was safe enough. Meanwhile, John, Thomas, Hughes, and Easton got in an armored jeep that had a TOW launcher on the roof, John stepped into the plexiglass missile launcher canopy and sat in a padded chair, a nice change of pace from limping through a tunnel. The Major opened up an ammo crate given to him by a private, and Hughes and Thomas entered shortly after. Easton shut the rear door and said "There's a .50cal MG on the passenger side windshield, I suggest you make good use of it. Everyone, get ready, I want two jeeps escorting that truck back to base, the rest, fire at will."

Thomas hit the gear, and the jeep began to speed ahead. The truck followed close behind, since it needed protection. The Jaari's had just begun to come through the door, but John fired a TOW missile, and turned them into fresh meat. "This is a final warning to any personal near Point Whiskey, the MOAB is coming, and nothing is going to stop this mother," said the Pilot over the radio. "Dammit Thomas, speed it up!!!" yelled John.

"It's going at top speed!!' yelled Thomas. The jeep sped along the huge tunnel, like a rat trying to avoid a broom. John turned the TOW turrent, and shot of another missile. Thomas saw the missile blow up an escaping Jaari truck, possibly one of the intergators. "Hope everyone's out, BOMBS AWAY!!!!!!!!" yelled the pilot over the radio.

It took a couple seconds before Thomas heard the large explosion. "Hooly SHIT!!!!" yelled Hughes, with fear in his eyes. Thomas looked behind in the rear view mirror, and saw the tunnel's roof collapsing. Thomas closed his eyes, ready to embrace death; when he suddenly felt the jeep start to go up an incline. "Yeah Baby!!!" yelled Major Easton.

Thomas opened his eyes, and saw the dawn sunlight coming through the tunnels exit. Thank you, god, thought Thomas, smiling. When they got up to the surface, they were greeted by Marines who had already secured the area. "Nice driving, Thomas," said Easton, slapping Thomas on the back. "I'm just glad that we got the POW's back, sir."

Chapter 3
Easton stepped out the back of the jeep, Hughes exited out the passenger side door, and Thomas the driver's side, Thomas opened the canopy and climbed out through the roof, he was then escorted to the medical tent of the base camp. As he was being bandaged and treated, a small group of high-ranking officers approached him, "Warrant Officer Spender." the highest ranking one, a colonel, said. "Yes, sir?" Spender replied "We represent the SOCOM brass, we'd like to have your skill set on an op." The colonel told him. "With respect sir, I think you'd want a few other skill sets too." Smiled Spender.

Thomas had just gotten out of the medical tent, and had just heard that Spender had just been asked to join SOCOM. "You cheeky basterd," said Thomas, slapping Spender in the back ", how is it that you always get the best out of everything?" Spender replied, "Well, I am better than you after all." Thomas and Spender both laughed about the joke, and Thomas asked ", so, what did they give you?"

"Well I've been with SOCOM since I joined SOAR, but I was never picked for any ops. And speaking of ops colonel, what's the deal?" The colonel looked at John and said, "I don't feel comfortable discussing it in the open, but here's the file." Spender recieved a half-inch thick folder filled with photos, papers, and maps. "And Sgt. Morgan, we don't think you'd be a bad candidate either." The colonel said as he walked away. John looked down at the folder and said, "Let's take this outside." He and Thomas then opened the folder on the hood of a parked humvee. As they read through the documents, they learned what the mission was about, The Jaarastan industrial complex was all but drained from the war, and their main providers of arms were now the insurgent groups hiding in the country's western mountains. SOCOM wanted their hideouts destroyed and their leaders captured.

"I've got some interest in doing this, but I can't leave my men behind. They'll die out in the frontlines without me, John," said Thomas, waiting for a reply from Spender

"I have some strings I can pull, they won't mind if they have a few extra marines in the fight...so I take it you're in then?" Replied Spender. Thomas smiled, "You've got yourself a new partner, John."

Tora Bora, formerly Afghanistan, Now Jaarastan

Midnight

Spender was 50000 feet above ground, and flying at nearly mach 2. He flipped a switch and brought up a thermal camera, he then zoomed in on a squad of soldiers hiding in a collection of shrubs, "Thomas, Alpha 2-3 Actual, do you copy? Over." The squad leader replied, "Affirmative Yankee 6, we're here and...wait John?" "Yep, I'm above the cloud cover right now, in a B2, you remember the plan right Thomas?"

"I got it, I got it." replied Thomas. The B-2 pilot then said,"Warrant Officer Spender, I need you on the guidance system now." Spender replied with a prompt "Yes sir." to the Major, he turned on a LED display and selected a bomb, he aimed the reticle over a large cavern entrance on the side of one of the numerous mountains in the area below, "Fireteams, this is Yankee 6, Area is free fire in 10." He then pressed the button and guided the smart bomb to the cavern entrance, it exploded in a brilliant flash and the US squads rushed down the mountain side from their hiding places.

Thomas fired toward the cave entrance, which had emerging Jaari's. They had just awakened the hornet's nest, and now Thomas was going to stick himself in it. Hughes was firing away with M249, with the flashes lighting his face. "WHY'D YOU SELL ME ON THIS SHIT, SARGE!!!!" yelled Hughes. "I needed a guy to draw the fire," said Thomas, laughing.

"Alright, Thomas your job is to find Ibrahim al-Sahirri, the cell's leader, he should be somewhere in the concrete bunker about...200 yards up the side of the mountain from your current position."Spender told Thomas, "Why can't you just blow it up!?" Hughes yelled. "Brass wants him alive, we can't make him a martyr." Spender shot back. The battle was raging, US teams were fighting dug-in terrorists on the cold mountainside, and both sides knew who they were up against.

Spender saw a hind emerge from behind one of the mountains and rapidly fly towards the squad, he dropped a smart bomb on it, and sent it crashing downhill form Thomas's squad. "Thanks for the save, Spender" said Thomas.

Spender observed Thomas and his squad enter the bunker on the B-2's thermal cam, he couldn't help them here. "Thomas, I suggest you split up. We don't know how far that bunker extends." Thomas replied, "Got it," and head into the tunnels.

"Hughes, I need you to take some Marines with you, and go down that tunnel" said Thomas. "Got it," said Hughes, taking three marines with him. Thomas took the other Marines with him, including Pvt. Young. They ran through the tunnel, checking smaller tunnels as they passed. The group ran into a cavern, and ran into a group of insurgents below. "Contact," said Thomas, aiming his M4 at the insurgents. Thomas pulled the trigger, and shot a insurgent inspecting a box of weapons. He aimed for another, and managed to get him in the chest.

The rest of his marines handled the rest, and they began to run down toward the weapons. Pvt Young walked over to some weapons, and said"Sarge, the got a whole lot of weapons in this shipment. TAR-21's, F2000's, G18's, TMP's, RPG's, AK's, Stinger's....." Thomas was surprised with Pvt. Young, and asked him ", how do you know so much about all these weapons?"

Pvt. Young smiled, "Along with computers, I'm pretty good with Military Weapons and Vehicles." Thomas slapped him on the back, and said "I'm glad your in my squad."

"Thomas, I have the cave exit on thermal, confirmed two hostiles leaving for the helipad on the far end of the bunker, over." Thomas replied, "Okay. Team, let's get moving! We got an insurgent to catch!" Spender continued to track them through the powerful thermal cam, capable of penetrating the bunker's walls, "Shit!" He heard Hughes yell as they entered the armory, a large room packed with hostiles, "Stand back Thomas, I'm dropping a present." Spender launched a cluster bomb, one large device that released dozens of smaller bombs, which could punch through the earth and into the room. Fifty small explosions detonated in the large armory, and Thomas moved up, he was at the exit now, and Al-Sahirri was just a few yards away, running for a chopper, "Get him alive!" an officer yelled over the radio.

"No problem," said Thomas, putting Al-Sahirri's legs between the red shot. He fired a short burst, and Al-Sahirri collapsed to the ground. He quickly turned towards the guard that was with Sahirri, and shot him between the eyes. "Move up," said Thomas. The squad moved up toward the wounded Al-Sahirri, and Thomas checked him for any weapons. He found a makarov pistol on him, and two gernades on him. "Fuck...you.....yank....." gasped Sahirri.

Spender, meanwhile, was observing the radar; noticing that multiple blimps were coming onto the screen. "Shit Thomas," said Spender ", looks like we have company. Ten Jaari jets inbound." Thomas clicked on his radio, and said, "Roger that, we're moving," and then clicked it off. Thomas noticed that the Hind was still laying on the Helipad, almost waiting to fly. "We're going to fly that thing," said Wilson, pointing Hughes toward it.

"Of all the crazy ideas you ever had Sarge, this is probably the biggest," said Hughes. "I know. And I don't even know how to fly this thing," said Thomas. Young reluctantly raised his hand, and said ", I do...." Thomas and Hughes both looked back at Young, very suprised with him. "What? You have to know these things when your in intelligence."

They started to head for the Hind, with Young in front of the group. He immediatly jumped through the open cargo door, and headed for the controls. He started the engines, and quickly checked to see if everything was alright. Hughes and Thomas finished loading Sahirri into the heli, and they got into the Hind.

"Alright, let's do this," said Young, lifting the Hind off the pad.

"Young, Hughes, Thomas, Head for the artillery encampment on the other side of the mountains to your right, you can land there, coordinates: Delta, Barvo, Hotel 6-3-22-5-Niner, over." "Understood John." Said Thomas, "We're on our way." "Well don't leave just yet." Spender said, "You'll miss the fireworks." "Fireworks?" Thomas asked, "Yep, we're at bingo fuel, we gotta land at our closest airbase but we gotta do something with our leftover payloads too." Spender told him in reply, he and the other bombers then each dropped close to 40,000 pounds worth of bombs across the valley, knowing that there was nothing left worth saving and that the ground forces had since pulled out.

Firebase Sierra, at the base of the Jaari mountains

Wilson slapped a folder onto the desk of the SOCOM operative, who looked strangly at Morgan. "What's this for, Sergeant?" asked Morgan. "I want to go back onto the frontlines, and so does the rest of my team," said Morgan, opening the folder; which showed the team's dosiers'.

"You do realize that this isn't a oppurtunity that you can come back to just like that, don't you Morgan?" Morgan looked outside the window, and saw a formation of Apaches taking off, heading for Syi Tuama; the one of the five large cities in Jaarastan. "I do sir," said Morgan.

Chapter 4
''Syi Tuama. There's nothing much really to say about it. Sitting in a large valley, it provides hydroeletric power for the rest of the country. It's also a major mining/industrial area. Which is why we want it. If we take Syi Tuama, we'll be close to having the Jaari's by the throat, and we'll be able to storm to the capital; hopefully. Still, as we sit waiting for our Captain' to order us to move out, I will still wait in this damn rice paddy........''

---

"Alright, let's move out!!" yelled the captain, picking up his equipment. Thomas closed his Diary, and put it into his left pocket.

Spender flew close to the ground in his new and improved Black Hawk, and dropped off a crate of supplies for Thomas's platoon as they moved down the rice paddy and into the nearby streets, "John, how are ya?" Thomas asked, "Oh, just fine Thomas, who wouldn't be with a new set of wings?" Thomas smirked at Spender's response. "Alright, Warrant Officer Spender, some of my squad members tell me you're a solid link to military intel, why don't you fill us in on the mission?" The Captain said. "Well, there are approximately 7,000 men assaulting the hydroelectric plant and affiliated installations, half a Marine division and a full Sapper battalion spread out over about 11 miles. The first step to the our three phase plan is simple, destroy any sort of Jaari establishments in the outlying area, leaving no chances for a coordinated counterattack. Step two: Move up the river via PT boats, they'll be waiting at the docks of the town of Shalin, a tiny fishing village on the river. Step three:" Young interrupted Spender here, "Blow the dam. Cripple not only the enemy's resources but also their morale. It's the steppng stone to invading the capital." John watched the squad grab ammo and smiled, "Not bad private, you know your shit. Alright, I'll meet you at the village, best of luck."

"Thanks Morgan," said Spender, clicking off his radio. The Platoon then began to move through the streets, which were pratically empty of cars. "They must be either retreating, or letting us get closer. I was in Iraq before we left and the Jaari's took over, and the bastards would always wait for us to get close, and then ambush us," said the Captain. "Same here," replied Morgan, aiming his gun at the roof's of the buildings.

They continued walking past abandoned and destroyed vehicles, walking farther away to make sure there were no IED's. Eventually, they began to here some familiar sounds. "Cobras. We're getting close to the fighting," said Young. The group began to run close to the walls, since the sounds of gun fire were getting louder. RPG's were flying through the air, and the sound of an Abram's tank firing was heard.

"Check those points," said the Captain ", I don't want any bullets in my ass."

"Watch it, team. You have no cover to your right and a 50 foot cliff to your left." Spender observed the platoon caredully look to the streets to their right and then down the cliff to their left, as they moved about the town. "Spender, shouldn't you be reinforcing the squads taking the docks?" The captain asked, "Well, the brass didn't forbid pit stops." Spender shot back. A few seconds later Spender heard Thomas yell "Tank!", Thomas immediately ordered a soldier to take it out with an AT-4. When the captain heard this, he said, "Don't risk it, I'm not losing anyone on this mission!" Thomas replied, "Sir, what do you want me to do?! If Spender uses his TOW missiles, he'll kill us all!" Spender told Thomas, "Don't worry, man, I've made some modifications to my new bird, I'll handle it." Spender then put the chopper on "hover" and switched his HUD display to a targeting system, he locked on to the tank, and opened up on it with a pair of nose-mounted MGs. The bullets destroyed the Jaari tank mercilessly.

"Damn, look at the fucke...." said a Marine, before a bullet pierced through his head. "AMBUSH!!!!!!!!!" yelled Thomas, taking cover behind a car. Screams and Explosions were in there top notes, and Thomas could barely hear. "I can't see 'em Thomas," said Spender ", I'm going to have to pull up, or else it's going to be like last time. And I won't survive this time."

Thomas saw Spender's helicopter pull up, and fly the other direction. They platoon was now alone. "Jarri's! Second Floor!!" yelled a Marine. Corporal Hughes moved his M429 toward the location, and preceded to fire at the house. "Sarge! I need these building cleared now," yelled the Captain behind a short wall ", by any means nescessary!!!"

Thomas nodded, and tapped both Hughes and Young on the back, and signaled them to follow him.

Spender felt awful about leaving Thomas' squad alone, but orders were orders, and dying was a very real threat. He proceded to fly to Shalin, only a few miles away from Thomas' position. There, a force of perhaps 50 combined US forces were fighting a Jaari force of nearly triple that size. "Attention all combat personnel, this is Chief Warrant Officer John Spender, Callsign Yankee-6, 7905 Charlie. I'm going loud, get your heads down." Spender opened up on the Jaari entrenchments among the houses of the tiny fishing village.Causing a swathe of destruction and allowing the US forces to push forward and take the town. He landed shortly after the town was secured. "Captain," he said to an Air Force officer, "I need to borrow some of your men, for reeinforcements."

Spender got the go ahead from the Captain, and loaded four pararescue men in to his chopper. He quickly flew to the village he had left Thomas at, and signaled the four soldiers to fastrope on to the roof of a small building, Spender couldn't remain in the area any longer, but he was confident in the abilities of the men on the ground, and even more confident in their equipment.

Thomas moved through the alleyway's, which were covered in shadows. The gunfire was still persistant, but he knew that they were getting close. The got to a door of the two story house, and he got againist the wall. Young took position behind him, and Hughes got in front of the door. "Can you do the honors?" Thomas asked to Hughes. Hughes grinned, showing his shiny white teeth. He then pulled back his leg, and rammed it into the door.

When the door fell, Hughes went in firing, and Thomas and Young followed him. Thomas turned his body, and quickly shot a Jaari in the corner in the head and chest. He turned again, and shot another; which slide down the wall face first. "First Floor, clear!!!!" yelled Thomas. He got in front of Hughes, and began walking up the stairs. The sound of RPD fire was still the largest backround noise.

As soon as Thomas turned to walk up the next phlight of stairs, a young Jaari was already aiming his AK at him. In less than a minute, Thomas raised his rifle, and fired blindly. The Jaari collapsed, and fell down the stairs. Thomas signaled Hughes and Young to move silently, and he began to move up the stairs.

He was amazed that the Jaari gunners never heard the firefight, because he still saw the two shooting at the rest of the Marines. He aimed carefully and put two bullets into the sculls of the Jaari's. He clicked on his radio, and said "Captain, we took the house, your free to move up."

Thomas said over the radio, "Captain, we took the house, your free to move up." But his Captain replied, "Negative, Sergeant, we cannot advance!" Thomas asked, "Why not?" but was promptly interrupted by a cry of "Enemy Helo! Enemy Hel..." As Spender listened to the carnage now far behind him, he almost let go of the stick because of his own nerves, but he had orders to prep the docks for the assault, and he had no other choice.