Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Another life, another uniform. Though you couldn't exactly call the routine inescapable per se, just a matter of personal preference at this point. At least for one of them.

This go around Mary decided she wanted to be a soldier again, but then again, it's unlikely she'd ever want to be anything else. Tanya didn't really have it in her to offer up much opposition. 

If it made Mary happy then it made her happy and it wasn't like there was much Tanya would rather be doing at this point. And this time Tanya had no great ambitions or grand plans. There was no draft, no conscription, no magic and no loopholes to commission into the military early, just a volunteer in a volunteer army in a peacetime footing. 

Nope, Private Tanya Degurechaff—Mary herself being a Private First Class having gotten a free promotion just for becoming an Eagle Scout—was going to ride out the enlistedman's life until Mary got bored or the next war killed them both. Tanya was long since passed having mere doubts about her faith in signaling theory and frankly with the stakes set fairly low by Being X she was more or less content to just go with the flow.

Maybe one of these lives she would take the reins, and her and Mary could venture down a path more Tanya's speed. Though, thinking about it, Tanya wondered what would that even look like? She definitely wasn't interested in the soul sucking grind of being a corporate wage slave again. 

Perhaps, wildlife photography? Something with a few thrills here and there, always out doing something. That might have been a pleasant change of pace. With the experience her and Mary have accrued they could probably even do a survival show. Wouldn't that be something? 

People probably wouldn't take them seriously at first, but did it really matter? As long as they weren't born into debt in their next life or another apocalypse, they could lead a nomadic life if they so choose.

Funny to think that Tanya, of all people, could see the appeal to a life like that, but honestly it seems like a natural and logical consequence to getting chewed up and spat out by every different kind of system one could imagine all the time.

But before she could really form a plan to make it a reality, well... you see.

"Ow!" There was a sudden sharp pain to the shoulder and a little lingering soreness beyond that to draw Tanya back to the present. 

"That hurts you know." Tanya said rubbing the soreness out of her shoulder.

"You were daydreaming again." Mary replied good naturedly. 

"Hmph." Tanya harumphed pleasantly, smiling. 

She decided to follow Mary's lead and ground herself in the moment letting focus drift less on her own thoughts and more to the smell of saltwater in the air, the warm Mediterranean sun on her face, and the intermingled sounds of seagulls, gossip, and power tools at work.

At some point Tanya could feel Mary's gloved hand join with hers while they sat on a pile of spare tires. It was a strange little habit that Mary had picked up, wearing gloves more often than not, but Tanya didn't mind. Mary could do what she liked, and in some way, it made the moments when Tanya got to feel the bare skin of Mary's ungloved hands more memorable, small but treasured memories.

Stratis... Even taking into account all the hours everyone had been putting into tearing the place down was still a serene and tranquil vacation destination, save for the odd bit of UXO. It was the lesser half of the Republic of Altis and Stratis. And as far as Mary and Tanya were concerned, it was their vacationing spot for as long as Task Force Aegis had left on the island.

Though, admittedly they were late comers as far as the rest of the Task Force was concerned. In a bit of back-and-forth compromising the two girls had joined up with their birth state's National Guard and Mary had even agreed to pick an MOS other than infantry for them to try out this time. 

Tanya had walked into MEPS expecting to walkout having signed a contract to become an Engineer, and walkout an Engineer she did... as a combat engineer... in an engineering company very clearly earmarked as a Sapper company. Funny girl, that Mary Sue.

That still left room for them to go to school or attend R.O.T.C. if they wanted to, though admittedly an officer's education was a somewhat of different prospect when one couldn't rely on their status as a mage to get into a fancy officer academy or build a reputation as an exemplary model of state sanctioned violence by threatening to kill a peer. Nope, that would be a fast-track way to find out what it's like inside of Fort Leavenworth.

They were fairly early into these lives, not counting infancy, and preschool, and kindergarten, and elementary school, and middle school, and high school. All things considered It was actually rather nice; Tanya and Mary had even gotten to grow up together. It was in an orphanage, of course, but at least they didn't have to go on a lifechanging adventure to find each other.

At any rate, they hadn't had the chance to really get familiar with the group culture or even the particulars of what being a U.S. combat engineer fully entailed before heading off to Stratis. 

Part of that... most of that had to do with Tanya's most recently acquired pastime of stalking the social media accounts of all the reincarnated versions of her former battalion mates. For whatever reason Tanya and Mary were both born as Americans, but the members of Tanya's battalion were still born German, save for Viktoriya, of course, but she still ended up in Germany all the same.

Tanya had been following Visha's goings on for as long as the two both had access to the internet. Viktoriya had decided to join up with the Bundeswehr in a logistical unit and after one little slip up of online discipline Tanya had found out they were being rotated onto Stratis.

For Tanya and Mary's part, despite being lowly privates, still had access to information that a soldier would normally acquire significantly further along in one's career. In this case, the Tour of Duty system. Task Force Aegis was hurting for bodies, and the need was so bad that the request for personnel MOS was immaterial.

Suffice it to say Tanya dropped a packet for the both of them, specially tailored to ensure both of them got sent together, not that they hadn't made that part clear in the ensuing phone interviews.

Just as Tanya wasn't so inclined to stand in Mary's way when she wanted to do something, Mary wasn't so unempathetic to the wishes of her partner as to stand in Tanya's way either. Besides, starting your career off with a rotation to a sunny Mediterranean island, what's not to love?

Well for one thing... the rotor wash of a MH-9 Hummingbird coming into land. The landing zone was just white paint laid out on the dirt so there was dust a plenty. Mary just pulled down the goggles from atop her combat helmet. Tanya had to unzip the padded case holding her protective glasses and settle for those.

Tanya noticed the Corporal whose section they had been assigned to was finally coming back up from taking a piss at the crest of the hill that LZ Connor happened to be situated on. Took him long enough.

The Hummingbird finally touched down and the Staff Sergeant in charge of them signaled for them to board.

"Over here, ladies," Adams called out, his voice a practiced bark over the engine noise. "Hop in."

Mary and Tanya both discontinued their handholding session, made sure they hadn't left anything behind and got up from the tires. Mary overhearing a conversation from two other soldiers as they walked past.

"Wait, what's the assignment today?" one of them, Wright, asked.

"Just the same shit as yesterday, man. Vehicle tear-down," the other, Davies, replied with a groan.

"What, we're on that for the whole week?"

"Yup. At least until the contractors get here, we're the junkyard dogs."

They hopped on the small helicopter climbing up into the passenger seats, Mary tossing her kit bag and Tanya her assault pack on the floor, while the boys sat on the outboards.

"All right, we're set. Let's go," Adams confirmed.

The pilot’s voice, calm and professional, crackled in their headsets. "Copy that, November's away."

The helicopter rose into the air and the two girls were content to enjoy their own company while the guys talked.

"What's the deal with the roads? Why the lockdown?" Sergeant Lacey asked, his voice tinny over the internal comms.

Adams leaned back, his helmet resting against the fuselage. "Someone forgot to tell the AAF commander we'd be decommissioning the airbase. He's throwing some kind of hissy fit over there right now. It's a mess."

"You'd think the Greenbacks were actually competent or something," Lacey scoffed.

"I wouldn't go that far," Adams replied with a dry chuckle.

Tanya couldn't help but huff at the open hostility, both in amusement and at the impropriety of it. Not a very professional way of dealing with foreign partners, but they were amongst peers and Tanya was a grunt now.

Speaking of foreign partners. 

"You excited to see Visha...? ...and the others?" Mary asked striking up their own little conversation.

"Why do you tack on 'and the others' like it's some kind of afterthought?" Tanya responded quizzically, eyebrow raised.

"Well, we don't have to pretend that we don't know who you really came here to see." Despite the sassy choice of words, Mary was still all smiles.

You see, Tanya could have done a lot worse in having a partner like Mary Sue. For one, Mary didn't hold it against her that she still had feelings for her once upon a time adjutant. Better still, Mary was even okay with Tanya correcting a long-time regret and pursuing a romantic relationship with the girl. On the condition that Tanya not mislead or withhold information about their own relationship from the poor girl.

With certainty, Tanya was excited and grateful for the direction this life was taking, now all she had to do was figure out how one was actually supposed to go about pursuing someone romantically while also engaging in a semi-open relationship... without you know, using shared trauma as a pretext.

Up ahead and below them was the now defunct outpost for the British contingent of Task Force Aegis, strangely enough a UH-80 Ghosthawk helicopter seemed to be disgorging a squad of troops at its own faded white-paint-on-dirt landing pad.

Lacey pointed. "Hey, check out Maxwell—there's a helo— didn't we finish with that place already?"

"Guess not," Adams said with a shrug. "Then again, command doesn't really seem to know or particularly care what's going on. Part of me can't really blame them."

Back in the Hummingbird's Cabin. "Thank you again by the way," Tanya murmured to Mary. "For being so understanding."

"Hey, don't mention it! Just make sure you give the others the time of day, and easy on the goo-goo eyes. Remember, as far as she knows you're just an American with a crush."

"I won't. I won't, though I'm not sure if I should be excited for the chance to start over somewhere other than a battlefield or frustrated that I have to start all over in the first place."

On their right was the massive radome of Air Station Mike-26 and the supporting prefabbed structures.

"Mike-26 sure looks quiet," Lacey observed.

"Yeah. Most of the guys have shipped out already," Adams confirmed.

"Just us lucky few left doing the monkey work, huh?"

"You'd rather be on a boat in the Pacific, Sergeant?"

Lacey's voice replies with a whine. "I'd rather be the hell off this rock, Staff Sergeant."

Mary, meanwhile, tried to encourage her partner "The former, definitely the former. Put a positive swing on things, it'll keep you from getting all salty like these guys here."

"Yeah... That sounds like a plan. Like uh... what's that one movie... You know Adam Sandler, missing memory, and all that?"

"Fifty First Dates?"

"That one, definitely that one. Except, it will hopefully only be the one first date... and I am definitely not even going bother trying to explain that we are both once upon a time reincarnated veterans of the Great War."

"That's probably for the best. Better to let sleeping dogs lay y'know? I mean, you can always break that one out in case of emergency. Worst case scenario, the Russy-Germanian girl says you're crazy and these people," Mary said throwing a thumb at their camouflaged colleagues, "you'll never see again think you're weird."

The small utility helicopter was just about to fly over what was little more than some abandoned Hesco barriers on a hill that just so happened to have a flat enough top to land choppers on. They had even done away with the white paint.

"I see LZ Baldy's packed up," Adams noted.

"Nice," Lacey said sarcastically. "At this rate, we might even get out of here in, oh, 20 years..."

"Greenbacks wouldn't stand for that shit, Lacey. They've had a stick up their ass about Baldy for weeks now."

"Yeah? Well they can respectfully go fuck themselves," Lacey retorted, his voice hardening. "We didn't butcher half our own population and I sure as hell didn't ask to be on their pissant island."

Adams shook his head slowly. "Well, ain't that just half the problem."

Tanya gave Mary a look, "One, you got it backwards. Two, Russian, not Russy. Germanian is... fine some of the time but remember just German." She corrected, as helpfully as her nature allowed.

"Ah," Mary said throwing her hands up in mock exasperation, "I'll get it eventually. There's just so many different ones to remember now. Man, it would be easier if I didn't even remember the old names."

As they passed over the circuitous road leading up to Rogain an unarmed Hunter MRAP drove east towards an AAF checkpoint on the route to the Kamino Firing Range.

"I thought the roads were closed?" Lacey asked, confused.

"They are," Adams confirmed.

"Well why's there a truck leaving Rogain?"

"Good question. No idea. Maybe something important."

Soon enough they were cresting the hill and yet another white-paint-on-dirt Landing pad came into view. 

"Looks like we're here." Tanya noted plainly.

The pilot’s voice came over the comms again. "Alright, guys, I'm going to bring us around before bringing us in. Try not to fall off."

"Oh hey! Look there she is!" Mary exclaimed leaning over Tanya to point out a certain brown-haired, blue-eyed, Slavic girl.

Tanya flinched away. "Please don't embarrass me before I even have the chance to introduce myself."

"Oh, who knows," Mary teased. "Maybe she'll find it endearing?"

The Hummingbird touched down smoothly with the help of a ground guide.

"Thanks for flying," their pilot said. "Please disembark in an orderly fashion."

The two girls scooped up their bags and pulled up their SPAR-16s from between their legs and hopped off as soon as the fellas got clear of the outboards.

"Kerry, go check in with the Lieutenant over there. He runs the show here at Rogain," he ordered. Then, barely sparing a glance, waved at Lacey. "Lacey—I dunno—make yourself useful for a change. I gotta piss."

In the absence of orders Tanya immediately made her way over to a pair of Bundeswehr soldiers wearing the now NATO-standard Mediterranean MTP uniform and carrying borrowed MX rifles.

The German government elected to have their troops draw rifles from the Stratis garrison as opposed to bringing their own SPAR-16 rifles along for this rotation. Which ironically enough was the very reason Mary and Tanya had to hand carry a pair of tough cases with their own SPAR-16s from their home unit on the flight over to Stratis. Normally, this would be a stressful thing for a pair of new privates, but for some reason Tanya and Mary didn't seem to have any issues.

Back to the German girls however, one of whom was, of course, a Viktoriya Serebryakov with no memory of Tanya whatsoever as well as a Heidi Lotte, one of the few other female applicants to ever make it through the 203rd's no less grueling abridged selection process.

Visha's eyes were as blue as ever, her hair still flowing long and with a much healthier sheen than it ever had in the Imperial Army. Lotte likewise still wore her blonde hair in a simple high ponytail, her shortish stature and plain features giving her a cute sisterly look. In this life she and Tanya roughly stood at the same height. 

"Hello, my name is Private Tanya Degurechaff, will you be working with us?" Tanya said, actually standing on her toes for a little extra height, but only Mary seemed to notice.

"Why yes, I'm Obergefreiter Viktoriya Serebryakov and this is Hauptgefreiter Heidi Lotte, we're responsible for the trucks here at Rogain so we'll tagging along."

Tanya felt a gentle squeeze on her shoulder with Mary trying to play the role of supportive friend and even a so-so wingman, though at the moment her mind was more focused on the other conversation happening nearby.

"Corporal Ben Kerry, reporting for duty," Kerry said, saluting.

The lieutenant, Edwards, returned the salute casually. "At ease. Okay, there's been a slight change of plan. Commander MacKinnon requires logistical support down at Kamino. He left just as you guys were coming in."

"Any idea why, sir?" Kerry asked.

"No, Corporal. Now take the trucks over there. You should probably get a move on."

"Understood, Sir."

It was Mary's attentiveness—or nosiness some might say—that gave her early notice that Kerry was making his way back over to the group.

"Well?" Adams asked.

"Sounds like MacKinnon needs some heavy lifting done at Kamino. I'll drive."

"You sure you can handle that?" Adams ribbed him.

Kerry just gave a smug look back. "Fuck you, man."

Adams grinned, then turned to the group. "Sergeant Lacey, grab that second truck. We're headed down to Kamino."

The pilot of their previous ride, November, piped up on the local net. "Hold up a second there, Staff Sergeant, let us get out of your way."

"Sure, appreciated," Adams nodded. He then leaned towards Kerry. "You know, Kerry, the service here sure is excellent, sometimes."

Once they made their way over to the lead truck it became immediately apparent that there might be a problem.

"Hey, don't worry about us Sergeant we'll just squeeze right onto the center console, it's not like there's any buttons we could bump into on a truck like this." Mary offered, downright jovial.

"Yeah, alright get up there privates." Adams replied.

Mary climbed up slotting herself into a decently sized cut-out groove in the bare metal center console. Sitting just shy of perpendicular inside the HEMTT's interior while laying her bag against the windshield with her rifle wedged between her and the passenger seat. Tanya climbed up next and planted herself on Mary's lap, holding her rifle in her own lap, and once again begrudgingly grateful that she was short enough to not have her head bumping against the ceiling.

"Heh. At least there's no MPs around here to bitch and moan about seat belts." Kerry offered in amusement while Adams took his seat.

The two girls did their best to get comfortable as Kerry released the air brake and puts the HEMTT in drive.

"Alright," Adams said, settling in. "Take the dirt road out of the camp."

Leaving Rogain and heading downhill on an unpaved dirt road while packed together like this didn't make for the most comfortable ride in the world but what can you do?

"Take a left at the T-junction," Adams instructed Kerry.

His arms crossed and his eyes not leaving the road, added. "And, Kerry, do try not to make roadkill of the locale wildlife. The greenbacks already hate our guts—we need to at least keep the goat population on side, you copy that, soldier?"

Kerry cracked a smile, his eyes still on the road. "Minimize collateral damage, sir. Hearts and minds, sir."

While the boys seemed to be utterly content to ignore them and carry on their own conversations it gave the girls the freedom to simply focus on each other.

Particularly, in that Mary couldn't help but notice a wriggling in her lap as Tanya, with a practiced nonchalance, began to subtly grind her butt into Mary's hips. To be completely honest the cramped conditions and the discomfort of the pouches on Tanya's battle belt pushing against Mary's diaphragm sapped any potential sex appeal, but surely, it was the thought that counted right? 

Mary certainly seemed to think so, as a warm and fuzzy feeling, of the more wholesome variety had risen up in her chest, glad that Tanya hadn't forgotten about her in whatever scheme she concocted to woo Viktoriya Serebryakov.

"There's a checkpoint up ahead," Adams announced, his tone shifting back to professional. "Slow it down, nice and easy."

A gate, concrete barriers, an MRAP, a mounted machine gun, and section of AAF soldiers blocked their path at the next T-Junction.

"Halt!" an AAF officer shouted, holding up a hand. He jerked his head at one of his men. "Private, check their truck."

"Yes, Sir," the private responded, approaching the HEMTT cautiously.

Despite everything she had been through, Tanya still couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed being seen squished together like this, especially with the full awareness of knowing exactly what she was trying to do lingering in the back of her mind.

Mary for her part was just happy to be there. However, both girls at least made a show of straightening up as best they could for the AAF sentries.

"Jesus, these greenbacks seem really on edge, huh?" Kerry muttered under his breath.

"No kidding," Adams grunted, grabbing the hand mic for the radio. "I better give Lacey the heads up. Sergeant Lacey, be advised, Greenbacks are really waving their dicks around today."

Lacey’s voice, tinny but cheerful, crackled back. "Yes, Staff Sergeant! I'll put on my best smile."

Without any indicator that they did anything at all, the AAF soldiers concluded their inspection.

"All clear, Sir!" he reported.

"Okay. Raise the gate!" the officer commanded.

As Kerry eased the truck past, the girls just watched as the checkpoint passed by, trying to ignore the fact that the static machine gun seemed to be following them right up until it was about to flag their comrades. Adams just shook his head in disgust and immediately got back to shit talking.

"You know, I don't think they even know what they're looking for, Kerry," he said. "Did you catch that? 'All clear?' Oh, sure, okay! I mean, Christ, give me a break. What a complete waste of time these people are. Whatever, let's just get to Kamino."

Together Mary and Tanya just tried to enjoy the rest of the ride in silence as they passed by a forest and a mounted patrol of Greenbacks. The calm unbroken probably for the longest time since they'd arrived on the island before Adams learned forward suddenly, squinting through the windshield at something on the road up ahead.

"Wait, is that MacKinnon?" he asked, his voice sharp. "Shit. Stop the truck, Kerry!"

Kerry pumped the air brakes rapidly, bringing the HEMTT to a stop as quickly as possible and putting it in a herringbone on the right side of the road opposite and just shy of a Hunter MRAP with visible blast damage scarring its chassis.

Kerry and Adams both dismounted with Tanya following suit. Mary collected her bag and dismounted close behind.

The radio crackled to life with a new, urgent voice as Adams immediately rushed over to MacKinnon's side with Kerry at his side. Tanya and Mary for their part wordlessly shared a look and took up a vigil scanning the wood line and their rear.

"Broadway, this is Point X-Ray, message, over."

"Go ahead X-Ray. Over."

"We've lost contact with Kamino—I say again—lost comms with Kamino. Can you confirm? Over."

Adams acted quickly to get vitals and even attempted to perform CPR to no avail.

Adams knelt beside the commander's body. "Fuck, he's not breathing! What the hell happened?"

He then grabbed the push-to-talk for his own radio while Kerry stood over his shoulder feeling like a bystander. "Staff Sergeant Adams to Kamino, come in! Commander MacKinnon's down! Requesting urgent assistance! Over!"

Out of nowhere it was decided that all hell would break loose. Down the hill to their southeast the Kamino Firing Range suddenly just started exploding as vehicles went up in massive roaring fireballs. The Deafening sound carried loud and clear across the island.

Tanya and Mary didn't even wait for the command to charge their weapons. Each putting a round into battery. They both went from standing to dropping down into a kneeling position and creeping up to the nearest piece of cover.

"Kamino to Broadway! Shots fired!" a panicked voice screamed over the net. "Requesting support!—Broadway, do you copy? Over!"

"Kamino, Broadway—we read you—wait one!"

Mary couldn't help but look back over her shoulder and comment, "Damn, shots fired is putting it lightly."

"Mhm." Tanya agreed just from the sound alone.

Adams had given up on his attempts at resuscitating the now corpse while Kerry began to gawk at the fire fight raging less than a kilometer away.

A frustrated voice called out over the radio with as much authority as it could muster.

"Adams, this is Rogain. Get your asses back here! Over."

"Copy, Rogain," Adams yelled back into the mic, "but, what about Kamino? What the fuck is going on?"

"No buts, Staff Sergeant. That's an order. Out."

"Understood, Sir. Out," Adams confirmed, his voice tight with frustration.

Adams took a moment to gawk himself, before righting himself and focusing back on the task at hand.

He straightened up, staring at the carnage below. "What the fuck is going on? Shit. Come on, people! It'll be safer on foot."

"Right behind you, Sergeant," Kerry said, his voice trembling slightly.

The small group abandoned their truck and began to trek into the adjacent forest, heading back north as fast they dared.

Broadway finally got back on the net for Kamino "Copy that, Kamino. Dispatching reinforcements. Just hold on!"

"A little late, Broadway," Mary remarked dryly to Tanya as they fell into formation with Adams and Kerry.

The comms net was a storm of panicked voices.

"Echo, we see explosions at Kamino... gunfire across the island..."

"Broadway, give me a report!"

"Situation unclear, Echo. Wait one." Was Broadway's only reply.

They hustled through the forest, the crackling of pine needles under their boots mixed with the distant sounds of gunfire.

"Sergeant, you got any idea what's going on?" Kerry asked, breathing heavily.

"Not a clue," Adams replied. "Sounds like a goddamn invasion."

"Wait, CSAT?"

"Just stay alert. Get set for contact."

Up ahead, through the trees, Mary spotted movement—the distinct shape of AAF uniforms. "Contact," She hissed as loud as she dared before breaking into a sprint, dropping down to slide across the forest floor on one knee behind the trunk of a thick pine. Tanya, seeing her partner move, immediately sprawled into the prone, high-crawling to cover just as Broadway’s decisive call came over the net.

"Broadway to all NATO forces on Stratis: Green on Blue, I say again, Green on Blue. AAF forces considered hostile. Hold your ground! Out."

Mary had already begun to draw a bead on one of the Greenbacks with her RCO and so both Mary and Tanya wasted no time putting rounds down range catching some of the Greenbacks in the open. While Adams and Kerry set in and punched 6.8mm holes in the trees the AAF tried to use for cover. The engagement—if you could call it that—was short and brutal. In a four on four at not even 100 meters against Mary and Tanya the fight only lasted as long as it took for the two girls to transition between targets.

"What the literal fuck—are you kidding me?" Kerry gasped, staring at the bodies.

Adams shook his head, his face grim. "I don't know what the hell's going on right now. Just stay focused. Eyes open."

It is at this point worth taking stock of the girls' equipment situation. Starting with Tanya as her equipment was more or less aligned with the standard of the basic NATO soldier in Task Force Aegis. Combat helmet, MTP combat shirt rolled up to the forearms, plate carrier and battle belt with her gloves still dangling from her belt, assault pack, and her tan SPAR-16 with laser aiming module and RCO optic.

Mary deviated slightly in that she was issued the last remaining Enhanced Combat Helmet in their unit's inventory before coming to Stratis and chose to rock them with a pair of goggles tensioned overtop. Additionally, Mary was amongst the rare few who preferred a field uniform over a combat shirt, though she did like to roll her sleeves up to elbow.

In fact, she had such a fondness for the classic and quintessentially infantry way of doing things that she even found a modern take on web gear. It was a large, padded battle belt with suspenders that ran under her plate carrier and let her take most of the weight of her fighting load off of her shoulders. Though, this was just to make it more bearable to fight with the larger kitbag, instead of an assault pack or lowly hydration carrier, that she kept her person more often than not.

A fortunate side benefit of having been issued SPAR-16s, however, was that they could coopt AAF 5.56 Stanag magazines. Which the girls took immediate advantage of, in addition to scooping up some fragmentation grenades which had not been initially issued to them, before hustling to catch back up to Adams and Kerry.

Adams was back on the radio. "Rogain, we've just had a run-in with Greenback forces in the forest to your south. Over."

Silence.

"Camp Rogain, do you read? Over."

A different, desperate voice answered. "Rogain to Broadway! We're under heavy assault! Send backup! Over!"

"That's a negative, Rogain," Broadway replied coldly. "Broadway to all NATO forces on Stratis: Code Foxtrot. Code Foxtrot. AAF forces have overwhelmed the airfield and Air Station Mike-26. We're pulling back. Try to get—" The transmission cut out.

It was clear that things were going to hell in a hand basket just about everywhere, but there was nothing for it but to keep moving.

Without magic it was a little bit more strenuous to keep up with the men, but Mary and Tanya both decided early on this life that they appreciated their previous athleticism a little too much to let it go so easily and put in the effort to maintain a somewhat equitable standard of fitness.

"Fuck! What do we do, Sergeant?" Kerry’s voice cracked.

"Stay focused," Adams commanded, his own voice strained but steady. "Point X-Ray's just over the hill. Our best bet is to RV with them and take it from there."

The group pushed up to the top with long strides and crested the steep hill bringing Camp Rogain clearly into sight as AAF helicopters circled overhead like vultures, the base sporting a few new smokestacks.

"Jesus," Kerry breathed. "Rogain's taken a beating."

"Let's hope X-Ray's had better luck," Adams said grimly. "Move it."

Wanting to avoid the shitstorm that Rogain had become the group then pushed their way up the hill to point X-Ray which was not much more than a fighting position for a Cheetah self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. Unfortunately, coming down to face them were not the vehicle's crewmen but another AAF patrol. 

It was Adams and Kerry turn to waste no time in laying down some hate. MX rifles barked as Tanya and Mary hugged what little wood line they could and closed the distance. The two girls capable enough of laying down semi-accurate rifle fire with 5.56 while advancing at a steady clip. There was the crack of an MX rifle and an AAF soldier trying to come around the corner of a Hesco barriers opposite the girls immediately careened to the dirt. As if he was a puppet mid-motion who had just had his strings cut.

Mary on her own put two sets of controlled pairs into the T-box of two Greenbacks before stacking up on the Hesco barrier wall. With Mary covering, Tanya clambered up onto a Hesco barrier and hosed down the last AAF soldier on the other side still focused getting at shot at Adams and Kerry.

Together, Tanya and Mary both scaled the single row of Hesco barriers and secured point X-Ray. The Cheetah badly damaged, there were dead NATO soldiers all around the fighting position, along with a roughed up looking Hunter parked nearby.

"Well, that's not exactly a good sign," Kerry said, stating the obvious.

Acting on intuition, Tanya immediately popped open one of the Hunter's pneumatic doors and rooted around inside. Mary watched as Tanya popped outs with a CLS bag with none of its carry straps attached and a foxtrot litter. Tanya quickly buckled the CLS bag on to the clips of her assault pack and sandwiched the litter's shoulder strap between her assault pack's own two shoulder straps making sure it stayed secure to her body.

Mary and Kerry covering all the while Adams contemplated their next move.

"Wait. I hear a chopper," Adams said, looking up. "It's one of ours!" right as a UH-80 Ghosthawk came from behind them and passed directly overhead on its way toward the southwest.

"Echo to all units in the Rogain area. We're setting up an evac point at LZ Baldy. Over."

"Echo, this is Staff Sergeant Adams!" Adams yelled into his radio. "We're en route! It's just the four of us, part of a detachment from Rogain. We're moving out from Point X-Ray now. How copy?"

"Affirmative. We'll hold, but we can't stall forever. Over."

"You're a Godsend, Echo! Don't worry, we'll be there! Out!"

The group immediately hauled ass southwestward down the other side of the hill, eager not to be left behind. Below was a small villa between them and LZ Baldy, unfortunately it happened to still be in the midst of the colossal shitstorm. 

They didn't get very far before an AAF fighter jet screamed right over them.

"Echo to all units, we just got buzzed by a fastmover! Expedite! Out."

And they didn't get much farther after that either before another section of Greenbacks crested the hill just beyond the villa.

It was a little far for perfectly precise shots to the head but finding cover behind a stone wall Mary and Tanya were still able to whittle away at their numbers striking hits at center mass.

"Go for the one moron wearing the cap." Tanya pointed out.

"On him," Mary replied letting the light recoil of her rifle walk her rounds up: one in the chest, one in the sternum, one in the neck, and finally one round catching the officer in the jaw on his way to the dirt.

As for the other Greenbacks, first round of 5.56 cracked the enemies' ceramic plates, the second round shattered them, and the third and following rounds punched straight through. 

The MX rifles got a pass through on the first or second shot, at least when Kerry and Adams were able to score a hit. 

The Greenbacks found themselves caught in an L when two MTP-clad NATO soldiers presumably having rushed down into the valley from Camp Rogain caught what remained of the AAF section on their flanks. One was able to hose the Greenbacks down with automatic rifle fire and freed up the group to continue moving.

"Hey! You two! Hustle up! Let's get the fuck out of here!" Mary shouted at the two newcomers still some distance away.

"You don't have to tell us a twice!" Shouted back a woman's voice.

As the firefight died down, the jet made another pass this time coming up behind them and passing over their left shoulders right as they reached the homestretch to Baldy.

"Shit!" Adams yelled. "Echo, fastmover vectoring on your position! Get out of there!"

It was too little too late as a missile slipped its rack and the Ghosthawk erupted in a ball of fire and smoke adding to the grow number of blazing pyres.

"Fuck!" Adams screamed, helpless. "Echo! Do you copy? Echo!?" as clumps of dirt began to fall from the sky all around them.

"Now what, Sergeant!?" Kerry shouted, his voice filled with despair.

"Shit, I don't know—we're out of options!" Adams admitted, his own composure finally cracking. "We need to get out of the open. Now. Rogain's down. Kamino's fucked... it's only bad news back where we came from. We've got to head south—there's a forest just over the hill."

"A forest? Are you serious?"

"If you've got any better ideas, feel free to share! Let's go!"

The two stragglers, who were actually both a pair of women wearing vehicle crew helmets and wielding MXC PDWs, had managed to get caught up and the now group of six pushed through into the valley past Baldy leaving behind the burning wreck and charred corpses of those who had actually made it to the impromptu evac on time. They did their best to hustle up the hill at the other end of the valley, unfortunately another small AAF patrol stood in their way. The AAF couldn't fully peek over the crest of the hill without skyling themselves and it was six guns to two.

"Someone throw me a mag!" "Same!" Both tankers shouted one after the other, so it was four guns to two, but once Kerry and Adams got that sorted the reports of the 6.8mm rifles were steady and oppressive. Clumps of dirt were ripped out of the ground like a bad tee up in a game of golf.

Once accurate suppression was laid in on the two Greenbacks it was lightwork for Mary and Tanya to edge around once again, taking long strides to get up the hill and close the distance as rapidly as possible. A pair of grenades were lobbed far enough on to the top of the hill that they wouldn't roll back down. Tanya signaled back to Adams and the others to shift fire. As soon as the friendly fire shifted, the two followed up the pair of explosions by finally pushing up and over the hill, safety selectors on auto, but it didn't matter the two Greenbacks were dead, perforated with hot shrapnel.

Liberating more ammunition and grenades from the deceased AAF troops, Mary, Tanya, and the rest pushed up and over the hill and started making their way down into the next valley.

"Come on, there's the forest!" Adams urged.

They didn't break their steady jogging pace until there was clear tree cover overhead, and they were far enough into the forest that they could only make out Camp Rogain by the pillars of black smoke reaching into the Mediterranean sky. The whole group gasping for breath all the while.

"We're alive," Adams panted, "but, Jesus, for how long?"

Chapter Text

The AAF had clearly transitioned from attacking to hunting. Gunfire across the island tapered off, and helicopters switched from orbiting active engagements to assuming more deliberate search patterns.

As it stood, there was an AAF CH-49 Mohawk transport helicopter flying above our band of survivors, the trees the only thing keeping the pilot or crew chief from calling in a swarm of Greenback reinforcements.

"Stay low," Adams ordered, his voice a low growl. "Let him pass."

The group collectively followed Adams's lead, keeping to a knee and presenting the smallest possible silhouette. The helicopter didn't linger and, once it was out of sight, neither did the survivors. Adams turned to the group, already assessing his new, limited resources.

"Kerry, give up one mag to Amaretto," Adams ordered, while simultaneously drawing a magazine from his own kit and holding it out to Pepper. "Pepper, no more auto. Keep it tight. That goes for both of you. We have no more mags left to give you."

"Okay! Understood, Sergeant," Pepper chirped, while Amaretto just offered a crisp, "Roger."

"As for you two," Adams said, gesturing towards Tanya and Mary, "it's on you two to pick up the slack."

Mary replied with a firm, "You got it, Sergeant." Tanya simply nodded.

"Okay," Adams said. "Let's move."

The group got up and moved out in a wedge. Adams took point, Kerry to his left, and Mary and Tanya to his right. The two crewmen, unsure of where to be, simply followed a little behind and centered on Adams. They were halfway through the forest when a new voice crackled over the radio, laced with static.

"Hello? Hello? Does anyone copy?"

Adams immediately keyed his radio. "Affirmative - is that you, Lacey? Over."

A voice, flooded with relief, replied instantly. "Sarge, thank Christ! We thought we were the only ones left. I managed to link up with a couple of guys from Point Zulu."

"What's your grid, Sergeant? Over," Adams commanded.

"Uh... We're just north of Mike-26, at the old outpost. Grid 043043. We've been here for, shit, at least an hour now. Over."

"Understood. We'll RV with you there. How copy? Over."

"Solid copy. We'll be here. Just get a move on. Out."

"You think we can make it there, Sarge?" Kerry asked, jogging to keep up. "I don't think we have much of a choice, Kerry," Adams said grimly.

They were nearing the other end of the forested valley when Mary suddenly threw up a fist and broke the silence with a shout, "Freeze!"

"Fuck me!" Kerry shouted in surprise but still managed to bring himself to a stop even while his gear and momentum tried to make him tumble to the ground.

"Sue, what do you got?" Adams called out, his rifle up and scanning their surroundings.

"Right there," Mary said, her voice low and tight, not moving a muscle. "Fucking... about two feet in front of you. UXO. Looks like a scatterable mine."

Adams leaned forward. "No shit. Yeah, I see it." The only evidence of the mine was a slight disturbance in the pine needles littering the ground that could have just been a rock if not for the tell-tale matte green color where there should have only been browns.

"Okay Sue, you're the engineer. What's the play," Adams said, deferring to the girl playing at being a Combat Engineer.

"Gravity would have brought the mines down closer to the center of the valley," Mary explained, her voice all business. "So, we should cloverleaf back, push up and out of the valley, and stick to the high ground."

Kerry, looking like he had seen a ghost, muttered under his breath, "Jesus." Adams just acknowledged the advice with a nod. "Sounds good. Let's push up to our left. Should leave us with more wood line once we're up there."

They pulled back a couple meters with Mary leading the group out in a file, now pushing up the side of the valley. Tanya took up the rear behind the two tankers.

Her head was on a swivel, unlike the two in front of her, who seemed to be alternating between staring at their feet and making sure they were following perfectly in Kerry's footsteps.

Just as they reached the new ridgeline, the radio sparked again, this time with a clipped, authoritative British accent.

"This is Captain Scott Miller, Royal Navy. Come in, over."

Sergeant Lacey took up the call first and spoke for his group. "Uh... Receiving you, sir. Sergeant Lacey. Over."

"Next time, avoid broadcasting over the whole net, soldier," Miller chided. "We're consolidating the remnants of our forces at Camp Maxwell. You're welcome to join us, if you want."

"Yes, Sir! Of course!"

"Not so fast. Altis Armed Forces have concentrated themselves around Mike-26 and the air base, meaning there's a sea of AAF units between you and us. I'm dispatching a team to RV with you at 028037, just east of Camp Tempest. Our callsign is Falcon. Make your way there. Over."

"Copy that, sir. We'll be there! Out."

A moment later, Lacey’s voice came back on the net. "Sergeant Adams, you get that? Over."

"Copy," Adams replied promptly.

"We'll sit tight and wait for you," Lacey continued. "But if we lose comms, we'll have no choice but to leave 10 minutes after last contact. Hope to see you soon! Out."

Mary stopped just short of the next crest, holding up a fist. She dropped to a knee and Sergeant Adams and Corporal Kerry fanned out to either side of her.

"There's an AAF patrol with an MRAP," she pointed out. "Barely fifty meters up."

Adams peered through his scope. "They don't know we're here. We'll just bypass 'em."

Once Tanya got to the top of the hill however, she was quick shake her head and put paid to that idea. "Sergeant, there's no way to move on from here without crossing out into the open"

"She's right, Sergeant," Mary added, gesturing to the wide-open road that led to the old outpost. "We either take 'em from the jump, right here and now, or they spot us when we get caught out there."

Even Pepper piped in from the back, "Six vee four? We can take em Sarge!"

"Yeah!" Amaretto echoed for good measure.

Adams let out a sharp sigh. "Ack. Fine. All of you, get on line. Chaff, you take the far left. You're going to crawl up and bounce a frag off their MRAP. Sue, you fix 'em with suppression. Kerry, you got the straggler up front. Pep, Amaretto, you catch any squirters. Okay ladies, time to put your money where your mouth is. Go!"

Tanya immediately moved to offset herself from the others, ensuring that she'd be out of their line of fire even after she crawled up. Kerry kept the closest Greenback dead to rights in his iron sights while Mary did the same for the other AAF troops meandering around their vehicle.

They all watched as Tanya dragged herself forward on her stomach until she was a good thirty meters from the Strider MRAP and not even half that from the lone Greenback pulling watch. She set her rifle to the side and unpouched a grenade.

She went from lying flat on the ground, her face eating dirt, to half-way rolled on her side so she could generate as much power with her throw as possible. With her middle finger set in the pin, she brought the grenade close to her chest and pulled tight until the pin came loose.

Tanya let the spoon fly off the grenade into the dirt next to her. She started to count one one-thousand... two one-thousand... At the two-second mark, Tanya cocked her arm back and catapulted the grenade towards the bulk of the patrol.

The sentry noticed immediately, but as soon as he made to shoulder and fire his rifle, there was the crack of an MX rifle. The sentry suddenly found himself hemorrhaging blood out of a new hole in his neck. The other greenbacks didn't even notice the grenade flying through the air towards them as Mary’s SPAR-16 erupted, barking at a cyclic rate.

The high rate of fire emptied the 30-round magazine quickly, but kept the enemy suppressed long enough for the grenade to explode within the midst of the AAF patrol.

The pressure wave was enough to kill one Greenback instantly while a piece of hot shrapnel eviscerated one prone AAF soldier trying to regain fire superiority, his guts spilling from the side of his abdomen.

Tanya fought up to a standing position, firing off a few pairs of shots as she rose from the kneeling, before finally dispatching the last AAF soldier by advancing on them with walking fire. Mary picked up and moved in as the shooting stopped, keen to stay near to her partner. Pepper and Amaretto eagerly followed close behind.

Adams and Kerry got up and walked over as Mary and Tanya were already swapping mags and stripping ammo and grenades from the dead.

Pepper was actually the first to look further afield and notice another Strider on the road heading their way from Mike-26. "Another Greenback Patrol!"

Adams didn't hesitate. He shouldered his MX rifle, looked through the side mounted reflex sight for his underslung grenade launcher, and got a bead on the enemy vehicle. he let loose a single round of HEDP. 

The round spiraled through the air before impacting the bulletproof glass. A glowing hot jet of molten metal punched through the three-inch thick laminated glass and carved through the driver's face.

The whole group had to get their asses out of the way as the Strider helplessly accelerated forward plowing right into the now deceased patrol's own parked vehicle. The sound was deafening as the parking brake screeched trying to resist the force of the oncoming vehicle with all the might ten tons of steel had to offer.

The one passenger who survived was so much worse for wear that if it weren't for the presence of Mary and Tanya the group might have felt bad enough to hesitate on killing the poor bastard when he tried to escape his would be coffin on wheels.

Inside said metal coffin was the standard fare of AAF small arms, however, there was one outstanding addition in the form of a PCML launcher straddled between the legs of one of the dead dismounts. 

Mary was quite eager to take the missile launcher on board, aware that others might not have been so keen to take on the burden of weight for a system assigned to none of them.

Now, out into the open, in the company of two wrecked MRAPs and the corpses of their accompanying patrols, the only cover the group had left was speed. So, for the nth time that day they booked it for as long and as hard as their lungs could endure. Their legs, meanwhile, could be tired some other time.

The radome of Air Station Mike-26 loomed large a mere five-hundred-some-odd meters away. They were just a short sprint from the outpost when Lacey’s voice came over the radio, this time guiding them in.

"We're over here, fellas. You see the big white building?"

"Yup," Kerry panted.

"Not that one - the old one next to it."

"Old one next to it. Got it. Out."

Moving past a low wall, the six survivors were finally reunited with Lacey's group. They were a mixed bag: Lacey, three other GIs, and the two Bundeswehr logisticians, Viktoriya and Heidi.

Visha and Heidi were closer to one another than even Amaretto and Pep had been. As if each were afraid the other would simply disappear if they so much as looked the other way. Still, Tanya wasted no time in trying to insert herself into the pair's huddle. The two didn't immediately reject her, but still a less-than-ideal place for group bonding time.

 The rest of Lacey's group were straddling the corners of buildings on the lookout for more Greenbacks.

"Good to see you guys," Lacey said, nodding at Adams. "We're ready to move when you are."

"Likewise, Sergeant," Kerry replied.

Pepper seemed to be looking for someone as she scanned Lacey's group. "Where's Carlisle and Harrison? We were supposed to be their relief..." 

None of Lacey's group seemed willing to look her or Amaretto in the eye, but eventually one of them finally caved, looked up, and met her gaze. "They never made it out of their Cheetah."

"The whole thing brewed up, turret's gone." Another continued quietly.

Pep and Amaretto shared a look as their knuckles turned white under their gloves as they each gripped their carbine tighter. "...Okay then."

Adams stepped forward, taking command of the newly formed 12-person element. "Alright, listen up, so we are all of one mind about this. We're going to push west to the rendezvous, link up with the Brits, and continue to Camp Maxwell. Let's get this done."

The dozen strong group pushed westward down the steep slope into another gully broken up by a much larger swathe of forest. Without the time to organize or workshop better ideas, the group defaulted to an enlarged wedge with Adams still on point. Pep, Amaretto, Visha, Heidi, and Tanya, took up the rear, all following behind in what was more or less just a gaggle.

Mary looked back a few times from her position in the wedge but ultimately decided the best thing she could for now everyone right now was be up front in the fight and let Tanya play mother hen.

Kerry looked nervously into the dense forest ahead. "We're going in there?"

"Yup," Lacey replied.

"Into the forest?"

Lacey gave him a sideways glance. "You've got a problem with forests, Kerry?"

"We've just not had that much luck with them today."

As they pushed into the tree cover, flanked by steep hills, Lacey cautioned, "Alright guys, keep your heads on a swivel. I don't like this. It's too quiet."

"You say that like that's a bad thing," Kerry muttered.

Mary's keen eye was the first to identify the larger six-man Greenback patrol who were searching the route canalized by the valley. Mary didn't wait to fire off a pair of controlled shots at the nearest silhouette wearing the AAF's distinctive digital uniform. 

"Contact! Twelve O'clock! 100 meters! four rifles in the open!" Mary finally screamed as she stabilized her rifle against a tree. Though, she was off on the count and referring to the AAF soldiers as being in the open was outdated information almost as soon as she said it.

This forest was much denser and did a significantly better job at hiding the enemy's movement. Mary's first two rounds struck home, but she had to put in work to get a clear sight picture of her next target in her RCO. 

One of the men Lacey picked up was armed with an MXSW with one hundred round quadstack magazines and as the forest began to get very loud, he made it louder as he began to start cutting down any tree he suspected of harboring an enemy with a tight cone of 6.5mm rounds. 

Mary heard two bodies sprawl out to her left and right as Pep and Amaretto seemed to have chosen her to be their anchor in the frantic firefight. 

The decision was made; Mary was going to take responsibility for the two girls. So, Mary sprawled down as close as she could get beside Pepper. The PCML on her back practically pulling her to the ground.

Mary tapped her twice on the back of her crewmen's helmet. "See that large shrub next to that tree on the right slope." She pointed in the direction of the aforementioned target; her arm was practically in line with Pepper's head.

"Uh... Yeah! Yeah, I see it." She gave Mary a look like a puppy being offered a ball. "You got it!"

"He's keyholing his shots somewhere between the tree and the bush. We're going to throw rounds at 'em 'til the muzzle flashes stop. One round, you shoot, then she shoots, then you."

"You got it!" Pep immediately replied before placing the offending flora in her holographic sight.

Mary slid over to the opposite side to relay the same details to Amaretto; tap, tap, point, "Right there! Shoot sparingly! One round at a time, got it!?"

"Roger!" Was the girl's brisk reply.

Mary threw four or five rounds at the target each of her spent casings landed on Amaretto's back. Mary rolled on to her side so she could see looking back.

And while Pepper and Amaretto were quick to join the fight it looked like the same could not be said for Lotte or Viktoriya. Tanya seemed to at least be making them useful by picking them up and orienting them to watch the rear.

Mary rolled back over and fought her way up to a knee for a better view. She then fired another half dozen rounds at a Greenback soldier trying to push up one side of the valley in attempt to get to the higher ground overlooking them.

"Hey! I think I got him!" Pepper shouted.

Mary confirmed checking the area with her RCO and no longer saw any muzzle flashes coming from the bush. "Yeah, you got em. Good job Pep!" She said trying out the unfamiliar nickname and emphasizing her praise by patting the girl on the helmet.

When Mary looked down, she saw that other girl was actually looking up at her in amazement, her face practically glowing with pride. Meanwhile, Amaretto's MXC continued to bark beside her calling her attention back to the fight. Mary brought her head back up, briefly shook the cuteness out of her brain, and acquired her next target.

The denseness of the vegetation dragged the engagement out a little bit longer, but it was still a one-sided affair in skill, firepower, and numbers. Once the shooting stopped and the group continued to sweep through the valley there were six dead Greenbacks at final count.

Kerry let out a shaky breath. "I told you going through the forest was a bad idea!"

The radio crackled. "This is Falcon. We just heard gunfire. Are you guys alright? Over." Though, despite being the same callsign the voice had changed sounding decidedly less stern.

Adams, breathing heavily, took the call. "Good to hear from you, Falcon. We ran into a Greenback patrol. Cut 'em down, still on our way to you. Over."

"Copy. We're in position at the rendezvous, awaiting your arrival."

"Understood, Falcon. See you soon. Out."

When they really got moving again, Mary noticed that Pepper and Amaretto were now following her directly, as if in a wedge within a wedge. Tanya, Visha, and Heidi were still in the back, but no one seemed to be falling out so that was good.

This time Kerry was the first to open up, the loud report of his MX coming through loud and clear as they encountered another AAF patrol.

"Eep!" Pepper squealed as a tree in front of them splintered apart from a rifle shot.

"Down!" Mary shouted, basically pushing Pepper down onto the valley floor as Amaretto shouted a single word reply and sprawled out on the ground beside them. 

Mary has never played well at being suppressed so she immediately started to throw half of a magazine down the length of the valley. Her rifle still on semi and her finger working the trigger with gusto.

Though they weren't precise shots at a point target the enemy certainly didn't seem to care for the distinction and immediately some of the fire slackened. But apparently the Greenbacks weren't willing to hand over fire superiority so easily as a machine gunner managed to get his shit together long enough to start letting rip a long burst of fire that raked the whole length of their ad hoc squad.

"Fuck! Somebody fucking kill that guy!' Mary yelled before dumping whatever was left in her mag at the source of the tracers kicking up the dirt all around them.

She leaned a little to her right and pulled a fresh mag out of a pouch on her belt. "Hey! You two pour it on em!"

The two girls beside her joined Mary in SPENDEXing a whole another magazine, their MX's barking in time with the softer report of Mary's SPAR-16. By the time the three of them had run dry there wasn't much of the body left to pull a trigger with even if he was still breathing or the machine gun itself hadn't been shot to shit.

The machine gun out of the way, there wasn't much left to stop the NATO squad from steamrolling the remaining AAF soldiers. When the shooting finally stopped Tanya was suddenly right there by Mary's side.

"You okay, Boss?" Tanya asked raising her voice to be absolutely certain that she was heard.

"Oh, you saw that?" Mary couldn't help but rub the back of her neck, while Tanya fretted over her, making sure the adrenaline hadn't prevented her from noticing any serious wounds. The rest of the squad seemed to be taking a moment to do the same.

"You know," Mary quipped as Tanya finished giving her the onceover, "from what I hear we gave 'em all this training, but even when their lives depend on it, they end up shooting like dogshit."

It was apparently funny enough for Pepper to break out into a fit of giggles and Amaretto tried to cover up a grin of her own. Even Tanya had a slight smile touch her lips but combine that with a slight tilt of her head that nobody, but Mary or perhaps a different life's Visha could have read as the plea that Tanya had meant it to be. 

"Sorry, there's really not much for it." Mary said with as much gravity as she could muster, hopeful that Tanya could see her sincerity and know she wasn't just making light of the situation.

Tanya just gave her a nod, "Understood." Then Tanya spared a glance for the two women at Mary's side, and a smug grin seemed to creep onto her face.

Mary started to blush, but Tanya withdrew back to Visha and Lotte's side before she could come up with a retort. Well, there was nothing left but to keep moving. So, they kept moving westbound through the forest still corralled by the embankments of the valley.

Up above an AAF Mohawk helicopter began to make another pass over the forest.

"Shit. Helicopter," Kerry hissed.

"Keep moving," Lacey said. "The trees will help hide us from view."

The group didn't stop or slow, electing to push through rather than wait for the inevitable Greenback patrols sent out looking to avenge the lives of their fallen comrades.

They finally made it to the end of the forested valley, the edge of the wood line well within sight.

"Okay, we're almost there." Adams assured.

They pushed up and over, coming across a road with a charred AAF Strider and the corpses of its accompanying Greenback patrol. Clearly a good sign that they were on the right track.

"Falcon, be advised," Adams said into his mic, "we're nearing your position. Try not to shoot us! Over."

The reply was instant and dry. "No promises. Falcon out."

Down a small slope on the other side of the road was a collapsed building and a small shack both surrounded by segments of a low stone wall.

As they approached, they could make out men taking cover inside the remains of the destroyed building and behind the low wall.

"Alright, men," called out one of the Brits, his voice the same as the second voice they'd heard on the radio. "You can come out of hiding now. Glad to see you made it in one piece. Let's go."

As the groups linked up, the Brits stood up, one man even crawling out of a bush some twenty yards further up the side of a hill.

The two groups coalesced and began the final jog to Camp Maxwell. "How many other guys have you helped out this way?" Lacey asked.

"You're the only ones so far," The Brit replied.

"Damn," Lacey muttered.

The sun was still hanging low in the sky; it wasn't even noon yet.

Chapter Text

Mary had seen camps whose acreage was in the six digits. Camp Maxwell was barely a couple hundred yards across; little more than a half-dozen prefab shelters surrounded by a Hesco wall perimeter.

Though, the same could be said for Rogain, but at least Camp Rogain could be reached by road. There wasn't even a two-track or a deer trail leading up to Maxwell anymore, but the shelters were still there, and it was one of the tallest hills on Stratis.

They had made it up to the top. Mary's watch showed that it was a couple minutes past 9 A.M., two hours since the shooting had started. Apparently, it was enough time for what survivors remained to have started squaring the place away.

A couple of sentries guarded one of the entrances to the camp, and another stood watch in a guard tower beside it.

As they were waved through the Hesco entrance, the British lieutenant who had helped them held up a hand to address the group, his expression grim. "For now, we're regrouping here at Maxwell—whoever's left," he said, his eyes scanning the new arrivals. "Just don't get too comfortable. You're one of the last groups we've been in contact with."

As they passed the guard tower, it did not go unnoticed that there were five men laid out being triaged on sleeping mats beside it, their uniforms clearly soaked through with blood.

The lieutenant gestured with his chin toward the center of the camp. "Captain Miller's coordinating things. Believe it or not, he's the ranking officer left on this fucking rock. He's just over there, setting up a temporary briefing area now." His hand pointed out what was little more than a table, chairs, and a few whiteboards, all under a camo net. "We're pooling what little weapons and ammo we have just beside it. It's not exactly an armory, but we need to take stock of whatever we've got left."

The Brit looked them over, his focus landing on Staff Sergeant Adams. "Tentative plan is to divide up into four squads, Alpha through Delta. We're taking names as they show up. I'm leading Delta, and Bravo's squad leader's just over there," he said, throwing a thumb over his shoulder. "Sergeant Conway was going to be heading up Alpha, but with your arrival, Staff Sergeant, we're hoping to be able to disperse the experienced leaders a bit." He finally concluded, "Anyway, Miller's got the details. A helo went down in a forest nearby. He's putting together a plan. Get your shit together and report in as soon as you are all set. We'll try to sort out exactly what the fuck is going on."

Adams immediately made off to go speak with Miller, leaving the rest of the group to sort themselves out. Apparently, the Bravo squad leader in question was a familiar face to at least one of the survivors—and if your name didn't rhyme with anya or ary, who wasn't?—as Kerry made his way over.

Sergeant Conway spotted Corporal Kerry approaching and clapped him on the shoulder. "Kerry, good to see you, man. This shit's a mess," he said with a sigh. "Anyway, this 'Captain Miller' wants to speak to us. C'mon, let's find out what's going on. You coming?"

Having nothing to sort out themselves, Mary and Tanya, with Pepper and Amaretto in tow, wandered over to Miller's briefing area.

Captain Miller stood before the makeshift planning board, his hands on his hips as the last of the survivors gathered. "We're still piecing together what happened this morning," he began, his voice cold and professional, "but one thing's clear: Altis Armed Forces on Stratis are hostile. Right now, long-range comms are down, Commander MacKinnon is confirmed KIA, and whatever equipment we may have had is either halfway-scrapped or wrecked entirely."

He paced once, his gaze sweeping over the assembled soldiers. "We need to organize. Rearm. Make a plan and take back the initiative. We'll split up. I've nominated three men—Adams, Conway, and Mitchell—to each lead a squad, Alpha through Charlie. My own team will operate as Delta under the command of Lieutenant James. Personnel assignments are listed on the board, though we are still plugging people in as they arrive."

True to his word, there was a dry-erase board listing personnel counts for total survivors, fit-to-fight soldiers, and walking wounded.

Altogether, the current counts were fifty-nine total survivors, five critically wounded, and the count for combat-capable troops at forty-five personnel. This implied that there were nine additional casualties, but this wasn't specified on the board.

Of the forty-five, eight were Miller's men, seven of whom were grouped together on the board as Delta, with Miller himself listed as 'Falcon'.

Tanya made a particular note of the placement of the men from the 203rd. They all seemed to be under Charlie squad with a Sergeant Mitchell, but at least it was all the names she was hoping to see: Weiss, Konig, Neuman, Grantz, as well as Ahrens, Meybert, Tospan, and Wüstemann. It seemed like they were trying to run standard nine-man squads, with the overflow personnel able to substitute in as necessary. Of course, as far as people who weren't in the 203rd: Alpha had Adams, Lacey, and Kerry, being the names Tanya was becoming familiar with. Sergeant Conway led Bravo, but none of the people in it were anybody Tanya recognized.

From what she could tell, Charlie seemed to consist of non-infantry types and walking wounded, so her men should be able to avoid the most dangerous assignments.

Her eyes lifted from the board, scanning the weary faces in the camp. For a moment, her gaze locked with a familiar one—Weiss, looking more scared than she had ever remembered him being on the eastern front, leaned against a Hesco barrier. He looked right through her, his eyes showing no flicker of recognition, just the dull fatigue of any other soldier. Tanya looked away. It was just as she expected, and yet, the feeling of being a ghost among them was profoundly isolating.

Even still, what Tanya couldn't find was her name or Mary's, Viktoriya's, or Lotte's anywhere on the board, despite having arrived at the same time as Adams, Kerry, and Lacey.

Looking around, she saw that in addition to themselves and the two tankers, there were only three other women amongst the assembled survivors. Nine unaccounted for names... and she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew exactly why.

Miller gestured to the dry-erase board. "Now, our first priority is situational awareness. Half our force will move out on recon. Another squad will dig in here and take stock of whatever equipment we've got to hand. And that just leaves us with our most pressing concern."

He pointed to a rough map of the island. "The AAF managed to bring down a Blackfoot. It crash-landed dangerously close to our position. There's a burning wreck and a smoke-stack a mile high—that is no good. Alpha will secure the crash site, make a sweep for survivors, and get rid of it. Questions?"

"Yeah, Sir," Mary asked, gesturing to the other eight women at her side. "We're nowhere on the board. What squad are we supposed to be in?"

Miller's eyes swept over them, his expression unchanging. "None. I have nothing for you. I have no intention of letting you make it more difficult for everybody else, but I cannot in good conscience leave you to the wolves."

"So, help however you can, but otherwise stay out of the way," Miller concluded coldly.

Adams just crossed his arms and said nothing. Both Kerry and Lacey looked like they were going to say something, but they took a moment to look at Adams and seemed to have lost their nerve at the sight of his inaction.

Miller turned back to the group, his tone unchanged. "Alright. Let's move out, gentlemen."

There was an unspoken understanding amongst the nine women who walked away from that briefing that they should at least make a half-hearted attempt at solidarity, even if it was just to agree on how useless they would be.

They found a corner on the north side of camp with some left-behind junk from the drawdown. The assembled women sat or leaned on whatever was available. A decent amount of the scrap was well on its way to rusting through.

A young black woman with an Air Force name tape on her uniform and the name Everett alongside was the first to speak up. "So, I guess that's that."

Pepper replied, her voice tight, "Well, we can't just do nothing."

Another girl with long dark brown hair and Asian features spoke up. "I am sure there is something we can do."

"Well, it's not fighting, that for sure." said a third newcomer, another Air Force chick with short, light-brown hair and a nametape that read 'Blackwell'. "I didn't join up to fight. I just wanted to learn how to work on machines and pay back my student loans."

"Tell that to the damn Greenbacks," Everett replied grimly.

"They aren't going to have the chance," Mary finally added to the conversation.

The anxious woman, Blackwell, looked up. "What?"

"I'm not just going to sit here, counting out names, and praying the same number comes back," Mary stated, her voice even and steady. "I am not going to wait for them to come here and kill us. No. There's one, real good, surefire way to make sure we don't have to watch everyone here bleed out and die. I'm going to go out and help, just like Captain Miller said."

Everett crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. "That was quite the speech," she said. "You do a lot of public speaking? 'Cuz it sounds super macho, but I'm not exactly hearing a plan in all that."

Mary met her gaze without flinching. "Eh, I'm just saying, I'm not really looking for anybody's approval. Truth be told, I'm just going to trail behind Alpha when they step off. Plenty enough out of the way, but close enough to help if they need it." She looked past the woman, her eyes finding Tanya instead. "See ya there?"

"Of course, Boss," Tanya replied with a faint smile.

Mary stepped away from the group and went off to sneak a few looks at Miller's map boards.

"Why do you call her 'Boss'?" Pepper asked Tanya, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Because she's the boss of me," Tanya replied, her tone dead serious.

For some reason, Amaretto had a smug grin on her face and proceeded to elbow Pepper in the ribs. "The PFCIC!"

Viktoriya spoke up then, her voice soft. "Are you actually going to go with her?"

"I am," Tanya stated simply.

Everett shook her head, bringing the conversation back to reality. "Okay well, even if I thought us fighting was a good idea, Me n' Eileen are rockin camies and handguns. And I don't exactly think this Miller guy is in a sharing mood." 

"Yeah, I wanna go with her, really, I do," Pepper admitted, "but... I don't want to cause any trouble by getting in the way."

"Mhm," Amaretto agreed quietly.

"That too," Eileen said, gesturing towards Clem. "But ignore whatever she says, even if you gave me body armor and a rifle, we're not grunts."

"Hey, how 'bout you go with 'em." Everett said gently nudging the long-haired Asian girl. 

Hitomi, startled by the sudden focus, held up her hands. "Woah! Me? No! I'm not a grunt either! I'm a supply specialist!"

"Yeah, well you're kitted out like your infantry." Blackwell chided.

"Oh geez..." Hitomi sighed.

"Hey, lighten up, I wasn't being serious. What's your name girl?"

"...Uh... Hitomi, Hitomi Mishima," the long-haired girl answered.

"Clementine Everett," she replied, "but you can call me Clem. Pretty much everyone does. Beside me is Eileen Blackwell." She gestured at the other Air Force tech.

Eileen gave a small, weary wave. "I can introduce myself, you know, but yeah, Eileen is fine."

"Akemi Ishikawa, but my friends call me Pepper, nice to meetcha!" Pepper said with a surprising amount of cheer.

"Serena... Amaretto," the other tanker said quietly, "but just call me Amaretto, please."

"Err... Hallo! Mein name is Viktoriya Serebryakov!"

A small, thoughtful smile touched Clementine's lips for the first time. "Serebryakov. I got my last name from my foster dad. He used to say it sounded too proper, that people should just call him Lee." She looked at Visha, her expression genuinely curious now. "Viktoriya Serebryakov is a lot of name. You got something shorter?"

"Ah... Well, ja, but it's kind of personal, only friends and family," Viktoriya said, blushing. Tanya briefly tried to recall if 'Corporal Serebryakov' had been just as protective of her name's diminutive, but she couldn't seem to remember the exact moment when she started to think of her that way. It was certainly sometime after Visha had gotten promoted and they had started the 203rd's training in the Alps.

"Hey, no worries," Clem said with a shrug. "Viktoriya it is. But hey, if being stuck together on a small Mediterranean island wasn't enough, now that there are bullets flying, I'm sure we'll all become thicker than thieves."

Seeing that she was up next, the other Bundeswehr girl spoke up. "Yes, um. My name is Heidi Lotte."

That left every face to turn and stare intently at Tanya, who declared her name with as much of an air of competence and aristocracy as she could put on. "Tanya Von Degurechaff. And Mary Sue. 1433rd Engineer Company."

The two Germans gave her strange looks, but she'd earned that 'Von' verdammt!

"Okay, Duchess," Clem said with smile before her expression fell back to skepticism. "So, I mean, boiling it down here. We got three truck drivers, a glorified mechanic, supply with no supplies, two not quite tankers, and you two engineers but... what makes you two think you can make a difference by going out there and getting shot? Why are two trying to play at being infantry?"

"Hey, they can fight," Pepper said, becoming surprisingly passionate. "We can fight. We've already fought, like, three Greenback patrols just to get here."

"Well, if that's the way you want to help so badly, why don't you just go beg to join Sergeant Mitchell in Charlie squad?" Clem countered. "Honestly, do what you want. I'm gonna go claim some real estate. We're either not going to live to see tomorrow, or we're going to be here a while."

One by one, the girls started to disperse and go their separate ways, leaving Tanya to consider a past life spent in human resources and another well acquainted with the facets of discipline and military administration.

Pepper and Amaretto were easy marks; they wanted to fight and had the temperament for it. However, they were afraid that doing so would see them ostracized. The solution was simple; they merely needed some kind of justification.

Tanya knew that in regard to Visha and Heidi, they had the temperament, based on their performance in her second life. However, in this life, they lacked the confidence of wartime experience. They needed to be empowered, convinced that their actions could have a meaningful impact.

The Hitomi girl, Tanya could see, believed that she was capable of making a difference but lacked the what and the how. Left to her own devices, she would invariably find some way to make herself useful but letting her find some other tasks to perform, while useful for the betterment of the group overall, would not be as beneficial to Mary directly.

The two airmen both had reasons beyond mere reservations. Eileen vehemently refused to participate in fighting. Clementine seemed to be more risk-averse than plainly opposed to all-out fighting. Therefore, she just needed to be convinced that there was greater risk in inaction. Whereas there was an angle to be considered in presenting the consequences of the alternative to Eileen.

There was, however, not only the various skill levels, personalities, and psychological barriers to consider, but Eileen and Clementine had brought up a good point. Between the nine of them, only three were properly equipped to fight the infantry fight. Mary, herself, and strangely the supply specialist.

Amaretto, Pepper, Visha, and Heidi had rifles and body armor, but none of them had pouches on their vests; they'd be stuffing magazines into their cargo pockets. Pepper and Amaretto were fortunate enough to have holographic sights, but Visha and Heidi were going to have to make do with irons.

Then there were Eileen and Clementine themselves, who had naught but a pistol to their name. If the men were gathering up all the weapons she could have scrounged for an armory, that would be difficult to address; however, Tanya thought she had a good idea as to where she might be able to get her hands on some body armor.

Opting to address the most time-sensitive of the potential assets, Tanya stepped off to go speak with Hitomi. However, before she got far, a hand had gripped her by the shoulder. It was certainly not anyone Tanya would have been expecting.

"Excuse me? Private Degurechaff?" Heidi Lotte's voice was quiet but firm. "Ja, I think... I think that I would like to go with you."

Tanya was dumbfounded. She had been in the process of formulating a script that would appeal to each of the cast-offs, but here was Heidi, volunteering of her own initiative.

A smile crept its way onto Tanya's face, "You surprise me, little one."

"Huh?" Heidi asked, confused.

"Nothing," Tanya said quickly, composing herself. "We appreciate your help. It does not look like Alpha has left yet, if you want to go get the plan from Mary."

"...Ja. Okay."

Tanya supposed, in retrospect, that while Viktoriya was a conscript molded into an elite by the tribulations of the Great War, Lotte had chosen the 203rd. And unlike the initial recruits who knew nothing of what they were getting themselves into, just what it said on a poster, surely Lotte would have been aware of her reputation, and yet she had volunteered to be a replacement in her unit all the same.

Tanya continued on her mission to find Hitomi, who, with her rifle leaning against one of the prefab structures, was pacing back and forth.

"Are you... okay?" Tanya asked.

"Huh? No, I mean... Yes, I'm fine," Hitomi said, not stopping her pacing. "I am just trying to figure out what I could possibly do to help around here. Agh! You know, I came to America to make my life simpler. Oh, I would come over, join the Army. They would give me a job. One job! I do the job, and then breaks, and sleep, and food, everything would be all planned out!"

Great, the girl had begun to start ranting in addition to her pacing.

"I could help a lot of people by getting really good at one thing, and it's the Army so no one could come along and make me do anything else! And I could just... be. And my mom would be happy 'cause I could take all my money and pour it into a good retirement plan!"

"If you want to help, then help us," Tanya said simply.

Hitomi stopped. "I don't know if I could. I'm no fighter."

"Do you know that for a fact?"

"Err... Uh... No?"

"Please," Tanya said, her voice softening slightly. "We need your help. If you help us, we can help Alpha, and that helps everybody."

Hitomi looked at her, searching for something. "But you're just asking? You're not going to trick me or try to get back at me if I say no, right?"

"Why would I hold it against someone for doing what is in their own rational best interest?" Tanya replied, the statement perfectly honest.

"My own...?" Hitomi's eyes widened. "Damnit! You're right! I'm being selfish! Everyone else is fighting! I'm in the army! The army's all about fighting! So, if that's what needs to happen, then that's what I'm going to do!"

The girl rushed off to go find Mary.

"Don't forget to grab your rifle!" Tanya called after her.

The girl rushed back, her face as red as a tomato, and collected her MX rifle. "Mary can help you if you have any questions," Tanya added.

"Right! Thanks!" Hitomi said, then ran off again.

That was easy? Tanya thought. I didn't even have to lie to the girl.

Tanya took a look around and saw that Alpha was moments away from stepping off.

"Shit."

She tried to search for Pepper and Amaretto, but they were nowhere to be found, and she would rather Mary not see what she was up to. However, instead of finding the pair of crewmen, she found Visha, Eileen, and Clementine lounging around a collection of tents on the north side of the camp.

"Huh. You guys didn't leave yet? Or have you changed your mind?" Clem asked.

"Never," Tanya said, stepping into their circle. "Where she goes, I go. However, I was looking for Specialist Ishikawa and Amaretto."

Clem raised an eyebrow. "Were you going to try and convince them to go play war with you?"

Viktoriya just sat there, sipping something from a canteen cup with a neutral expression on her face.

"I imagine you're quite keen to continue pretending otherwise," Tanya said, her gaze fixed on Clem, "but if this war is a game, then we're all players. And in this game, if you are not playing to win, then all you are doing is passing the turn."

"Agh! Seriously, blondie!" Eileen shot back, surprisingly aggressive. "What do you think you're going to accomplish by going out there!?"

"We are going to show up," Tanya stated calmly. "We will be present, and if they need us, we will be there. Right there, where they need us, when they need us."

"And what if they don't?" Clem challenged. "What if you just psyched everyone up for nothing and wasted all of their time?"

"Do not be a child," Tanya said, her voice dropping, losing its patience. "The best thing that could possibly happen is that they don't need us. However, I would rather be out there than here when they start dragging the dead and dying back. They'll need an extra pair of hands, if you think you can stomach that better."

"The Greenbacks will be shooting at you, you know," Clem pointed out.

"Yeah. They have been doing that today," Tanya replied flatly. "It's a good thing they paid me to learn how to shoot this rifle."

Clem gestured at Tanya's gear. "I bet you feel a lot better going out there when you're wearing body armor and y'know have an actual gun."

"We can fix that, you know. And it's not like we plan on throwing ourselves in front of a machine gun."

"Just going to sit there, just in case?" Clem asked, testing the phrase.

"We are just going to sit there... just in case," Tanya confirmed.

Clem looked at Eileen, then back at Tanya. She let out a long sigh. "Fine."

"Clem, you can't be serious," Eileen whispered.

"I'll pitch in," Clem clarified, "but only if you are able to get us some actual body armor. And only because you two are strangely confident about all this." Her eyes narrowed. "Mark my words, though. If it turns out you have no idea what the fuck you're doing and we start sticking our necks out for stupid shit, I'm out."

"Clem, don't leave me by myself," Eileen pleaded.

"Then come along," Clem said, nudging her friend. "And don't sweat it. She's not going to be able to deliver anyway. Not without stealing." She gave Tanya a withering look.

"I will be right back," Tanya said, turning on her heel.

Tanya immediately rushed over to the main entrance where the casualty collection point was located. Alpha was already stepping off. Tanya knew Mary would wait, would even give up this whole crusade if Tanya asked, but Tanya was concerned that the delay would cause her partner problems.

When she arrived at the CCP, it was just as she had suspected. The rifles were gone, collected and stacked up at the "armory." However, the casualties' kits were still laying around here and there. Some would probably consider it macabre, but Tanya figured out which vests to acquire by looking at the casualties first, and the vests second.

She saw a man who only had a tourniquet and a dressing wrapped around his leg. Another who had bandages wrapped the whole length of his arm and around his shoulders—certainly a burn victim, Tanya deduced. Finally, a third just had gauze wrapped around his head, face, and neck. The fourth and fifth casualties both had chest seals applied, their body armor certainly compromised. Three usable vests.

Between the three, the burn victim's was fairly charred, and the vest belonging to the one whose face was wrapped up had clearly eaten shrapnel from an explosion. The nylon held together, but a few pieces of shrapnel had definitely struck the plate at speed, leaving small tears in the fabric and marks on the ceramic.

It was a simple enough thing for Tanya to take the bad plates out of the good vest. She pulled out the vacuum-sealed square of adhesive camo fabric that came with her uniform, slid it inside the torn vest to patch the most egregious hole, and then took the good plates out of the bad vest. Presto chango, two bad vests became one good vest.

She stacked both vests, slid her arm under the shoulders, and scooped up four helmets. She looked back over her shoulder as she left to deliver the goods, but at this point, Alpha was out of sight.

"I'll be damned," Clementine said on her arrival. "And yeah, I wouldn't exactly count that as stealing either." She nodded towards the gear. "Eileen, help me out with this."

Tanya let the vests slip off her arms and the helmets fall to the ground while Eileen and Clementine tried their best to size the vests up properly.

"Here, like this," Tanya instructed, showing them how to adjust the straps. She stuck around to make sure the assets she was recruiting were not completely ate up, but also because with Pepper and Amaretto nowhere to be found, that left one last person to convince.

Clementine and Eileen had left as soon as they were fitted, but Viktoriya, well, she was actually in the process of eating an MRE peanut butter and jelly sandwich when Tanya decided to try and talk to her.

"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov! Are you always going to be such a glutton?"

"—Whugh?" Viktoriya actually tried to reply through a mouthful of food. She gulped so loud you'd be more surprised that the Greenbacks didn't hear it across the entire island, and then tried again. "I... I never mentioned my middle name was Ivanovna."

Tanya stooped down to Viktoriya's level and put her hands on the brunette's shoulders. "No, you didn't," she said, her voice softening. "But Visha, we need your help. I need your help. So, it would mean a lot to me if you'd come with us."

Being called by the nickname that only her parents and grandparents knew her by seemed to shut off Viktoriya's brain for a few seconds. Then she realized that she was, in fact, very confused and utterly mystified. Far more than a little weirded out, but very, very curious to know who this strange American woman with a 'Von' in her name was, who seemed to be so familiar with her, Viktoriya finally answered.

"Alright," she said with a surprising amount of alacrity.

Tanya was so over the moon that she had agreed so readily that she pulled Visha into a hug. She was going to get to fight with her adjutant at her side again. They would both face the horrors of war and assuredly become friends again. And this time, neither of them would die. There would be no world war, and Tanya would not let professionalism hold her back this time. No one, in any of Tanya's lives, had ever seen her more genuinely excited to go to war, though Visha could only assume she was just grateful that she said yes.

Tanya's own emotions began spill out a little more. "Thank you, Visha! You have no idea how much I've missed you," she said, before planting a kiss on the woman's cheek. She then stood up to compose herself and hurried over to Mary, not worrying whether the woman behind was actually following or not.

When Tanya got there, it turned out, Mary had actually managed, all on her own, to convince Pepper and Amaretto that acting as a mobile reserve counted as 'helping however you can'.

"Oh shit. Damn," Mary said pleasantly as Tanya and Visha arrived, giving the now fully assembled group a once-over. "Looks like we've got everyone." She settled her eyes on Tanya, who simply communicated her role in this turn of events with a smile.

"Sorry if I made you wait," Tanya said.

"No, actually, I was always planning on giving Alpha a head start," Mary replied. "We'll get less grief than if we just left with them." She looked over the nine of them. "Now that I've had the chance to talk with most of you, I have a pretty good idea of how we should do things."

Clem raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm sure we're all ears."

"Serebryakov," Mary began, "you, Tanya, Everett, and Blackwell can form one team. You'll be our Alpha team—since the name Alpha's already taken, for the sake of clarity, you'll be Red Team. Until we can get the two of you some rifles, you'll be in trail."

"Pep," she continued, "you'll take Amaretto, Mishima, and Lotte and form our Blue—Bravo—team. You'll be in the lead for this. Mishima, you'll take this."

"Wha—!" Hitomi started, as Mary handed her the twenty-eight-pound PCML. Despite being initially vexed, she took it without complaint and handled the extra weight well enough.

"So," Clem cut in, her eyes fixed on Mary, "you're just going to appoint yourself squad leader?"

"Well—" Mary began, before being cut off.

"No," Tanya asserted, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Mary is the boss. She's in charge. End of discussion."

"Alright! I gotchu, boss!" Pepper cheered.

"Right!" Amaretto agreed.

Clem just gave a slight nod. "Alright then. So, what are we doing exactly?"

"We actually need to get going; Alpha's going to be getting close by now," Mary said, turning to head out. "Just follow behind me and I'll explain as we go."

The squad began their descent in a rough approximation of a single-file line. "Alright, it's as simple as this," Mary explained over her shoulder. "We're going to stay a hundred meters or so back. If Alpha gets in a TIC, we're going to jump the bad guys while Alpha has their attention. If Alpha takes casualties, we're going to pull 'em out. If they just need bodies to help 'em do any kind of work, we'll tag in for that, too."

"Hey!" Eileen called out from the back. "I thought we were just going to sit around, just in case."

Mary turned around and shuffled sideways to make eye contact with her. "You ever see a container that says, 'break glass in case of emergency,' but it's actually just empty? Don't worry," she added, her voice reassuring, "I'm not lying when I say the most dangerous part is on Alpha."

As Adams's squad made their way down the hill, his voice crackled over the radio net. "Alpha to Falcon, approaching crash site, over."

Miller's voice, designated 'Falcon', replied instantly. "Confirmed, Alpha. Make a sweep of the immediate area. Out."

"We'd better hustle up," Mary urged her squad. "We're still further back than I'd like. How you doing, Hitomi?"

"Uh... doing good, um... boss!" Hitomi grunted, adjusting the weight of the PCML.

Minutes later, the sound of gunfire erupted ahead. "Contact! Patrol just up ahead!" Adams yelled over the radio, followed by the cracks of rifle fire. "Find some cover and open fire!"

"Shit, that's less than ideal," Mary muttered. "Alright, since it's just a patrol, we'll stay in reserve and only commit if Alpha can't finish 'em."

After a brief but intense firefight, Adams keyed his radio again. "Okay. Looks like that was the last of them. Falcon, this is Alpha. Enemy forces occupying the crash site neutralized. Securing now, over."

"Copy that, Alpha," Miller replied. "Be advised, Bravo reports enemy movement incoming from Girna. Get in and get out. Falcon out."

"Y'all hear that?" Mary said to the group. "Girna's about a klick from here. If this drags on, we may have to help Alpha stall for time."

A moment later, a different voice from Alpha squad shouted over the net. "There's a survivor over here!"

Adams got back on the radio, his voice tight with a new urgency. "Falcon, we've got a survivor at the crash site. He's immobilized. We don't have the supplies to get him moving. Requesting medevac, over."

Falcon's response was laced with grim pragmatism. "Medevac? With respect, Alpha, it's not like we've got a helo on standby here. Bear with me. Wait one."

Mary knelt, keying up her mic. "Alpha, this is... Echo. We are less than a hundred fifty meters from your position with a fox litter."

There was a half-second of stunned silence. "What, Echo? Ah, fuck it! Just hurry up. Alpha out."

"Pepper! Get your team in there now! Go!" Mary ordered. "Red! On me!"

A new voice crackled over the net. "Echo, this is Falcon, state your identity."

Mary ignored him for the moment. "Tanya! You already know! Get there!"

Tanya pushed herself, not just running, but sprinting as hard as she could, even catching up to Pepper and pushing them to run faster.

"The rest of you, go!" Mary yelled. The remaining three were hesitant, but her tone brooked no argument, and so they too got a move on.

"Echo, Falcon—" Miller started.

"Roger, Falcon, this is Sue," Mary interrupted, jogging now. "Echo is double-timing to Alpha's position now, over."

"I don't recall assigning an 'Echo' squad, Private."

"You didn't, sir, but we needed a callsign for the net."

"I believe I gave clear instructions not to interfere."

Mary was finally able to get eyes on the Blackfoot and saw that Tanya already had someone uncase the litter on her back and was spreading it out beside the casualty.

"Falcon, we have yet to interfere and I'd consider this 'helping', break," Mary said into her hand-mic. "Be advised, Echo is on position and prepping the casualty with Alpha's medic, over."

There was a pause. "Understood, Echo. Falcon, out."

The compact litter had no frame, merely a nylon mesh with three pairs of grab handles, so Tanya and Alpha's doc were able to get the pilot ready to move in short order. It was then that the second wave of AAF hit.

"Here they come! Engage at will!" Adams screamed over the radio.

"Hitomi! Amaretto! Lotte! Get up that hill and cover!" Mary commanded.

A mixed trio of ascents was given back as the three pushed up the way they came to get a height advantage on the approaching Greenbacks.

For Tanya, the world narrowed to the ten-meter bubble around the wounded pilot. The crack of incoming fire was a familiar, unwelcome symphony. "On the litter, now!" she commanded, her voice cutting through the noise. Pepper was already there, grabbing a handle.

Eileen hesitated for a split second, her face pale, but Clem grabbed her arm. "Come on!" Clem snapped, pulling her toward the front of the litter. Tanya watched Visha, whose face was a mask of terror, but whose hands went to the litter handle without question. She still follows orders as well as I remember, Tanya noted with a surge of grim satisfaction.

"Lift on my mark! Three, two, one, LIFT!" The six of them heaved the pilot off the ground on the order of Alpha's medic. "Move! Go, go, go!" He yelled, pushing from the rear as they began the grueling uphill run, Clem setting a pragmatic path through the rocks and scrub.

Mary played quarterback keeping an eye on the CASEVAC, her overwatch, and still keeping an eye peeled on Adams, who was himself coordinating Lacey's and Kerry's teams as they threw the AAF off the hillside.

Together, the five other members of Mary's squad, with Alpha's doc making six, continued to rush the casualty in a steep, uphill, five-hundred-meter dash.

"Alpha, this is Falcon, give me a SITREP," Miller's voice demanded.

"This is Alpha," Adams replied between breaths. "In contact with an AAF squad. Uh, they triggered at least two of our mines, but the rest are being real dicks about it and taking potshots at us from solid cover, over."

"Understood, Alpha. Keep it up," Miller said. "Echo, status on the CASEVAC."

Mary looked up the hill and almost wouldn't have been able to make out her squad if it wasn't for the literal cloud of dirt they were kicking up as they beat feet for the last hundred meters.

"Falcon, the casualty is almost to you now. Be ready, over."

"Roger that, Echo. We'll be waiting."

"Alpha, execute the mission as soon as able," Miller's final order for them came through. "Destroy the wreck and get back to Maxwell. Out."

"Okay, you three," Mary said to the women of Blue Team who had been providing cover, "each of you throw in a full mag. Take one from Hitomi and throw the other one in your pocket."

They each did so and psyched themselves up for whatever was next to come.

"Okay, follow behind me. Let's go," she commanded. "Alpha, Echo, I'm taking a team and flanking your twelve by way of nine, how copy, over?"

"Hey, roger that, Echo," Adams replied. "Be careful."

The four girls conducted a bold flank around Alpha's left. The Greenbacks, having lost sight of them, began to tunnel-vision on Alpha. When Mary thought she was roughly centered on the AAF's position, she got her team on line and they began their assault.

"Hey! I know none of you have any reps doing walking mag changes, so be fucking smart with those triggers! Stay on line with me!" she yelled over the gunfire. "Alpha, Echo. Commencing our assault. Shift fire right."

"Hold up! Get down!" Mary suddenly shouted, making sure the other three had stopped.

The suppressive fire briefly slackened, then immediately kicked into high gear as Alpha poured it out on the right flank. "Shift fire confirmed," came Adams's voice.

"Pick up! Go!"

When they started to walk through the AAF's lines, it was clear from the charred dirt and the two Greenback corpses off to their right—one missing a leg—why they hadn't immediately seen any targets. However, that quickly changed as the remaining Greenbacks came into view, each girl taking shots at whatever was in her lane.

"Alpha, Echo, do you have eyes on my team?" Mary checked.

"Roger, Echo."

"Alpha, are we clear of the mines? Over."

"Uh... wait one."

"Halt!" Mary screamed. "Hitomi, it's on you! Pick up the rate of fire!"

And she did. That girl started jerking the trigger like it was her boyfriend. In the excitement, even Lotte seemed to get into the swing of things, firing four to eight rounds in rapid succession at a piece of microterrain with a hint of digital camo behind it.

"Hey! Not you two! Watch your ammo!" Mary barked at Lotte and Amaretto. "Ah, fuck this!" Caught in a pause right on top of the enemy, Mary prepped a grenade and lobbed it into what she presumed was the best cover the enemy had. When it went off, it seemed to set off another explosion beside it, and the shooting stopped.

"Echo, that was the last mine. You are clear," Adams reported.

"Roger. Lift fire," Mary ordered. There was no longer any shooting, but better safe than sorry.

"Lift fire confirmed."

"Pick up! Push through!"

As they started to make it to the rest of the downed AAF squad, Mary called out, "Heidi! Controlled pairs!" as the German girl was the closest to walking over a Greenback soldier lying on the ground. When Heidi looked back, confused, all Mary could do was demonstrate, putting a pair of 5.56 rounds into the body of an AAF soldier she herself was about to walk past.

Hitomi and Lotte both looked unsettled, but Amaretto quickly caught Mary's meaning, her MX carbine barking twice as the team passed the last Greenback and pushed a little ways beyond.

"Alpha, we are clear," Mary reported.

Adams's voice came over the net, taking charge again. "Kerry, plant a charge on that wreck."

"I'm on it!" Kerry shouted back.

Mary had her team double back and made sure to grab as many magazines and grenades as she could stuff in her pack.

"Was shooting them on the ground like that really an okay thing to do?" Hitomi asked, her voice trembling slightly.

Mary stopped and looked at her. "Well, you don't wanna never see your family again, right?"

"Well, no," Hitomi whispered.

"Okay," Mary said, her voice softening a bit. "We're not going to do anything illegal, but we're not going to ever fight fair if we can help it, and we're certainly not going to give an inch more than we have to. Fair deal?"

"Uh... Yeah, fair deal... uh, boss?" Hitomi managed.

Mary gave her a firm pat on the shoulder. "Hey, you did it. And you didn't back down. That's nothing to sneeze at." She then looked at Heidi. "Hey, Heidi. How 'bout you? You good?"

"Ja... Ja. I'm gut," Heidi replied, her voice shaky but firm.

"Okay then," Mary said, her gaze sweeping over her new fire team. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Finally, Kerry confirmed over the radio, "Charge planted, Sergeant!"

"Okay. Wait until we're all clear before detonating," Adams ordered.

Echo joined up with Alpha, and together they all started pushing the five hundred meters back to Maxwell. Once they were a safe distance away, Adams called out, "All right, Kerry. Do it."

The explosion quickly used up all the fire's oxygen and tore the Blackfoot into so many pieces that there was nothing big enough left to burn.

Panting, Adams fell into step beside Mary. "Sue, if you're trying to prove something, maybe waiting until you're on top of the fucking active minefield to ask about the fucking active minefield isn't the best look."

"We seem to be having a lot of issues with mines today, Sergeant!" Mary quipped back.

"Ain't that the truth," Adams grunted. "Hey, but don't go getting those girls killed, now. You know there'll be a hissy fit when we get back."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Sergeant! But fortune favors the bold and who dares, wins, and all that bullshit! I'd just say an officer's wrath is a small price to pay!" Adams just shook his head at that.

They were just about to hit the crest of the hill, some of the other girls from Red Team already waiting for them, when Adams clapped Mary on the shoulder and said, "Hey. Good work, Sue."

"Yeah. Thanks for the help," Kerry added, jogging past.

Adams's praise and the honest offer of gratitude seemed to set the tone for the rest of Alpha, who all passed by Mary with simple nods and an occasional word of thanks.

If Tanya weren't busy helping treat the downed pilot at the CCP, she might have even received a hug and a kiss from her partner, but that could always come later.