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A Warrior's Forgiveness

Author's Note: If you want some music to go with this, try "Over There" by Chris Gerolmo or Soldier Hard's "Walk with Me". When I mention a song in the story, I would suggest listening to it while reading the section. Another thing: I don't own the music. Also, this story gets a little heavy on military jargon and military designation of weapons. Most of it can be Googled and found with very little effort. I pride myself on realism, at least as much realism as possible in the Sci-Fi genre, in my stories. Last part of this note, the universe this is in belongs to Shetland, not me. I do have his permission to write this though. All characters belong to me. If someone wants to draw some pictures for this, just ask and I'd be glad to have some art to go with this. Despite the feedback I've gotten, I've decided to make this story, two chapters. Now on to our feature presentation.

Author's Note 2: This story (in case you ignored the tags) is long, no yiff (yes, I said no yiff, if you're looking for that go to a different author. I don't do yiff. Period), long, has war violence (violence, gore, death, anything related to war), long, has humans and various species, and have I mentioned long.

Ut persevero odio gravis damnum

Somewhere in the Pacific, 27 March 2009, 0700 Hours (local)

"Do you understand your orders, trooper?" asked Colonel Steve Black.

"Yes, sir," First Sergeant Eric 'Sarge' Johnson, a twenty nine year old Special Forces Operations Sergeant, replied. Due to casualties that haven't been replaced, he was now the leader of an Operational Detachment Alpha. Colonel Black stared into Johnson's hazel eyes that had the scars that only heavy-duty Special Forces operatives get. He had the look of a thirty-year combat veteran, yet he was only eleven years into his military career.

"Good, move out," he said as Johnson walks out of the room. "Oh, and one last thing, Johnson. Good luck and Godspeed. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that you will need it. Be careful soldier."

"Always am, sir. We won't let you down, sir," Johnson replied. He walked out and met with his Special Forces team on the deck of the USS Enterprise. Five men dressed in standard Army ACUs were sorting through gear that was around them; picking out weapons, ammo, and other gear to take with them on their mission. Johnson stopped for a second and was about to say something when a pair of F35 JSFs took off from the carrier's catapult. After the sound of their jets had faded into the distance, one of the soldiers sorting through the weapons saw Johnson and held up a rifle in one hand with a big grin on his face.

"Hey, look Sarge! They gave us some of those new SCAR rifles!" Staff Sergeant James 'Pyro' Taggert, a thirty-year-old, yelled over the background noise of the busy carrier.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know Pyro. You have always wanted to try it out. Enough with that already man," said the thirty-five-year-old man standing next to him as he sorted through the medical supplies.

"Well, what about you, Doc? Got any new toys to stick us with?" Corporal Raymond 'Joker' O'Malley, a twenty two year old Black man, joked while he checked through the explosives and demo equipment. Sergeant First Class David 'Doc' Stevenson scowled at him.

"Alright, alright. Break it up now," Staff Sergeant Victor 'Aztec' Alavi, a thirty-three-year old Indian, said while he tried to break up the brewing fight by moving in between the two, interrupting his job with the communications equipment. Master Sergeant Rueben 'Malarkey' Michael, a forty-six-year-old looked over towards Johnson and shrugged as he went back to digging through the ammunition bins near him.

"Troopers, gather around!" Johnson yelled while silently chuckling at his squad members' antics. Everyone gathered around him. "Intel has finally pin-pointed where the package is. Our job is to secure it and either get it prepped for extract or for destruction. Either way, this needs to be accomplished fast. Intel has placed about a company-level of enemy forces in the area. Load up extra heavy on ammo and grenades. They can't be allowed to move the package. If they do, people will die," Johnson said solemnly.

"Anything else, sir?" Aztec asked.

"No, that's it for Intel. We will have air support if things start going south. Command has also authorized the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles, destroyer guns, and if things get really bad, and I mean really bad, one MOAB," Johnson said. Not one of the troopers showed any sign of emotion at news, but Johnson had worked with them long enough to tell that they were all shocked at the details he just told them. Based on the size of the island, barely even a quarter square mile, if they deployed the MOAB, it would wipe out the entire island.

"Why would command use a MOAB on that island? Why not give us some old Daisy Cutters?" asked Pyro.

"Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do or die," Johnson said with a small smirk.

"In other words, you don't know," Joker said, grinning.

"All joking aside, if we can't secure it or destroy it ourselves, our orders are to call in the MOAB. I'm not going to lie by saying this will be easy. This is one of the most important missions of our lives, gentlemen. We CAN NOT fail, as clichéd as it sounds. Too many people's lives depend on this. Get your kit together, we leave in half an hour," Johnson said, with a completely serious tone.

The soldiers around him snapped to, grabbing weapons, ammo, communications gear, and medical equipment. Pyro tossed Johnson a standard SCAR-H rifle. Johnson nodded his thanks and collected fifteen clips of ammo, and ten extra clips for his forty-five ACP sidearm.

Pyro hefted up his M240B LMG, with a larger ammo box then standard equipped to the bottom of it. Pyro then grabbed ten extra boxes of the same sort. Each box held around 450 rounds, 125% more than standard.

Joker grabbed a SCAR-H with an FNGL40-H. He loaded up with around fifteen forty-millimeter high explosive grenade rounds and the same amount of clips for the SCAR-H. Doc and Aztec both grabbed close quarter combat versions of the SCAR-H. Both also loaded up with twenty magazines for the SCAR-H and ten clips for their forty-five ACP pistols.

Malarkey grabbed a 'long barreled,' or what everyone else calls the sniper, variant of the SCAR-H, along with an ACOG 4X red dot scope and fifteen clips. He also stocked up with twenty clips for his nine-millimeter pistol, which they all affectionately called 'the cricket.' As they grabbed the rest of the gear, communications and medical, a MH-60K Blackhawk appeared on the aircraft carrier's elevator and the Special Forces squad ran towards it.

The Blackhawk started up and, as soon as the last operative was on board, took off. Johnson looked at the unit insignia on the Blackhawk crew's uniform, which was from the legendary 160th SOAR, also known as the 'Night Stalkers.' Johnson went back to his seat and sat down. He prepared himself for the mission to come; he mentally recited the soldier's prayer along with both the Ranger's Creed and the Special Forces' Creed. 'I'll make you proud Dad. I'll make both you and Mom proud,' Johnson thought after he finished. He looked out the window of the Blackhawk and he felt steeled for the mission.

"We are almost at the LZ. Touchdown in sixty," the pilot of the Blackhawk said over the intercom.

"You heard the man, lock and load, troopers!" Johnson yelled over the background noise of the Blackhawk. All of the operatives checked the chambers of their respective weapons to make sure there was a round loaded. All of the operatives stood up and moved towards the doors. In the pre-dawn light, the island could barely be distinguished from the surrounding ocean, but thanks to the pilots having NVGs they could see it just fine. The island itself was nothing special. There was a small dock area on the south side that was big enough to land the Blackhawk. It was the designated LZ and Extract point. There were several walls along a 'street,' forming six rectangular boxes on each side with the street running down the middle, that lead up to the only village on the island. To the North was a sharp cliff with coral and jagged rocks at the bottom. To the East and West were also hills, but they had jagged cliff faces towards the village in the center of the island. There was one way in and one way out. 'This needs to be done swiftly and silently, otherwise we're going to be surrounded and overrun. The only thing we'd have going for us would be the air, missile, and destroyer support. Hopefully we'll not need that... I don't want to have to go through what would happen if we have to...' Johnson thought before he turned to look at his men.

"You see that village?" Johnson said, "It's actually the entrance to an underground base. Intel doesn't know how we are supposed to get in there, so we are on our own with that detail. Once we get in, we need to access a computer and get a layout of the base. After that, we need to get the Package and get out. Hopefully we can do all of that without getting spotted. If we are, we need to take them out quickly and quietly; otherwise we'll be swamped in OPFOR."

"That's quite a tall order, Sarge. Think we can do it?" asked Malarkey.

"We don't have a choice, Malarkey..." Johnson said. He looked out of the 'copter and noticed the ground approaching fast.

"Touchdown in ten," the pilot reported over the intercom. The moment the Blackhawk touched down the pilot yelled back, "Touchdown, hit it troopers! Good luck and Godspeed!" The Blackhawk's doors were thrown open as the Special Forces operatives dove out of the helicopter. As soon as the last operative was off, the chopper took back off. The whole process was about three seconds. The operatives were lying on the ground, using what concealment what was left of the night could provide. Johnson checked his watch, 0820H local; making it 1620H Zulu. 'We are losing our concealment with the dawn, we need to move,' Johnson thought as he signaled for the squad to move up and to use the stone walls as cover. Once they made it there, they slowly crept closer to the village; they used NVGs to make sure that none of the OPFOR were around. When the team reached the edge of the village, Malarkey crept over to Johnson.

"Sarge, something doesn't seem right. There no guards or sentries. Something is very wrong here," he whispered.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. What do you think? They waiting for us or are they just lazy?" Johnson whispered back.

"Don't know, but we should prepare for the ambush possibility," Malarkey replied.

"Agreed. Move up to that section of the wall," Johnson said, pointing out a section that was perpendicular to them, "and cover the left flank. Take Pyro and Doc with you."

"You got it, Sarge. Hey Doc, Pyro! Follow me," Malarkey said in a forced whisper. The three operatives moved up to the wall while Johnson, Aztec, and Joker covered them. Once they got to the wall, they signaled the all clear. Johnson and his team moved up on the same wall, only on the right side of the 'street' that they were on. Johnson this time signaled the all clear. He looked over at Aztec and Joker, and they both looked nervous. They both knew something was wrong. They then clambered quietly over the wall and moved up against the first house in the village. Johnson looked over and saw that the other team had done the same. The area was getting brighter as dawn approached. The two teams of three operatives advanced into the village slowly, and they stayed in the shadows. As the soldiers started clearing the first of the houses, the soldiers all felt extremely nervous. The house that Johnson and his team cleared was empty; completely empty.

"What's going on here, Sarge?" asked Aztec, "This house is empty, there isn't even furniture. I'm actually surprised that there is more than one floor and the walls have been painted. It's like this house is ready to be lived in but isn't..."

"I know Aztec. Something is very wrong here," Johnson said as they made their way out of the house and moved onto the next, "but we need to accomplish this mission. For our brothers who died protecting this." Aztec nodded and the team snuck into another house. It was the same as the first, empty. They moved out to a third. They quickly breached in and found another empty house, however this one seemed to have been lived in. There were a few cigarette buds on the floor. 'Okay, so there are enemies here... Just where are they?' Johnson thought as he signaled for the rest of his group to fall back out of the house. Just as they were about to leave, Doc ran into the room.

"We found the entrance. Let's go!" he said hurriedly before he ran back the way he came. Johnson's team ran after him. They came upon another house like the ones they cleared, but this time there was a trap door like entrance hidden in what looked like a furnace room. The door was open and there were two corpses lying nearby. Both of them had empty AK-47's.

"Someone strip them of their ammo?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah, ten clips total," Malarkey said as he passed Johnson, Joker, and Aztec two AK-47 clips each.

"Alright, here comes the fun part," Johnson said sarcastically, "What a way to earn some pay." The soldiers around him chuckled softly. Johnson maneuvered quietly over to the entrance. He peeked down the hole with his weapon aimed down the hole. There was a ladder that led down to what seemed like a hallway. Johnson, using hand signals, signaled to cover him as he went down. Johnson slung his weapon and Pyro and Joker moved to cover Johnson descended. Johnson grabbed both sides of the ladder and slid down. The moment he touched the ground, he let go of the ladder and shouldered his rifle.

He turned around and faced away from the ladder. There was a doorway in front of him. He signaled for the rest of the team to start coming down. As each of the soldiers came down, they took up a covering position on the doorway. Once Doc was down safely, Johnson moved towards the door and started clearing the hallway in front of them. Aztec and Pyro followed, and then Joker and Doc. Malarkey picked up the rear. Johnson froze and held up a fist when he reached a four-way intersection of hallways. He signaled Joker and Aztec to take left side while he and Pyro took the right. Doc and Malarkey both aimed their weapons straight ahead, making sure no one came from the corridor in front of them. Joker and Johnson both peeked out quickly, and ducked back in. Joker signaled clear but Johnson signaled contact.

There was one man with an AK-47 standing guard at a door. Joker and Aztec stacked on Johnson and Pyro. Johnson checked the silencer on his weapon, he then leaned out and pulled the trigger when the hostile's head was in his sights. The enemy soldier dropped with a soft thud. Johnson, Pyro, Aztec, and Joker rushed into the hallway as Malarkey and Doc provided cover. Pyro and Joker secured the hallway as Johnson and Aztec secured the corpses weapon and ammo; Johnson passed another clip for everyone, save Pyro. Then Malarkey and Doc moved up and stacked up on the door. Joker and Johnson stacked up behind them.

They quickly and quietly breached into the room beyond the door that the dead soldier was guarding. The room just so happened to be the security station. Among the computers were seven soldiers, five of them had AK-47. Before any of the enemies were able to react, the room was filled with silenced gunshots. The five armed enemies were the first to drop from the Special Forces squad's highly accurate and lethal fire. The remaining two were dropped when they reached for something near their respective workstations.

The squad went over to the workstations that the enemies were at and pushed the corpses out of the chairs. Aztec and Malarkey got onto the computers.

"I'll get the layout of the compound," Malarkey said as he started tapping away at the computer.

"Right, I'll get the Package's location," Aztec replied, also tapping away at the computer. Pyro and Joker moved into the room while they dragged the corpses of the guard inside.

"We cleaned up the wall outside the best we could. Hopefully no one will notice until we get out of here," Joker said as he took up a covering position on the door. Johnson then moved to the dead enemy guards and stripped them of their ammo. He then passed out five more clips of ammo to everyone, save Pyro again.

"Malarkey, Aztec how much longer?" Johnson asked.

"Got it," Malarkey said as he pushed the chair away from the computer. On the computer was the layout of this place. He pointed to one of the rooms and said, "This is where we are."

"Okay, I know where it is. It's in the... Oh man, this is not good... We have about ten minutes to get this or they'll use it. It's right," Aztec said as he rolled over to Malarkey's computer, "here. So we need to go down this corridor, take a left, then take the next right, follow that to here take the next right, and boom. We have our package."

"Alright, you heard Aztec, we are on the clock people. Move it," Johnson said as they all moved to the door. Johnson checked his watch and saw it was 0919H local. Johnson was tempted to tell them to abandon all forms of stealth, but when he saw the layout... Intel was wrong, there was way more than a company stationed here; a division strength at least. He didn't say anything as the squad fell back into the hallway. Johnson made eye contact with Malarkey. The look in Malarkey's eyes told him that the old Assistant Operations Sergeant had come to the same conclusion as he did. The squad moved down the corridors as quickly as they could. They met no resistance as they moved through the maze of hallways. The loudest noise Johnson could hear was his own breath and heartbeat. They took no more than four seconds at each intersection, performing the same action they did at the first one. When they got to the last intersection, they held up. Aztec signaled four contacts.

Johnson and Pyro quickly stacked up on Joker and Aztec. Johnson looked at Pyro quickly and motioned him off.

"If you open up with the LMG, the entire base will fall on us in seconds. Get Doc and tell him to trade places with you," Johnson whispered quietly. Pyro nodded and crept quietly over to Doc. Doc crept even more quietly over to Johnson and tapped him on the shoulder. Johnson then tapped Joker on the shoulder and Joker tapped Aztec on the shoulder. Aztec signaled to Johnson and Doc to cross over to the other side of the corridor. When the two were ready to cross, Aztec held up a fist. When Aztec saw that the guards weren't looking, he dropped the fist and both Johnson and Doc sprinted over to the other side. One of the guards saw the movement and yelled out a warning. All four of the operatives peeked out from behind the cover and opened fire. The four guards never had a chance as they were cut down by the silenced gunfire. The Special Forces Operatives moved towards the door. Joker and Doc went to work checking the enemy guards and securing their weapons and ammo, while Johnson and Aztec went to the door they were guarding. The door was a solid metal security door with a keypad and card reader off to the right. Aztec moved over to the keypad and card reader while Johnson checked on the door.

"I might be able to hack the keypad, but I'm not sure," Aztec said.

"Here, try this keycard," Joker said as he tossed an ID card over to Aztec.

"This door can't be brought down with explosives without bringing down the entire structure, even if we had that option. It's a solid steel door. I don't think we have enough explosives, or the proper explosives, to make our own door anyway," Johnson said, "Try the card, Aztec. It's the only option we have. We have about four minutes. Hopefully when we get in there they'll stop the countdown." Joker than passed out another four AK-47 clips to all of the SCAR-H equipped soldiers.

Aztec slid the ID card through the card reader and looked at the keypad. A green light on the keypad light up and the door opened.

"It can't be that easy," Aztec whispered.

Johnson signaled to sweep and clear the next room. Joker, Aztec, Johnson, and Doc stacked up. When everyone was ready, Joker rushed through followed by Aztec and Johnson. The room was extremely open and in the middle of it was a missile; the package. 'This doesn't feel right,' Johnson thought as the team moved in.

"Joker, secure the objective. Disable that missile now. We'll cover you," Johnson said as he and the rest of the team spread out, checking for more entrances. Joker ran to the missile and started working on disabling it. When he popped the cover off, Joker pulled out a set of wire cutters and was about to start cutting the wires that lead to the navigation systems when he saw that the missile was booby-trapped.

"Sarge, the package has been booby-trapped. I can't disable it without it going off. I might be able to retarget it to splash down in the ocean," Joker said as he started working on the navigation systems.

"Do it Joker, I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like dying today," Johnson said, trying to cut the tension a little. All of the operatives chuckled a little at the guillotine humor as they moved towards their only escape route. Joker was working furiously on the missile; cutting this wire, soldering that wire there, connecting these two wires. He eventually stepped back from the missile.

"Got it, it'll splash down in the middle of nowhere," Joker said as he picked up his weapon.

"Got it, let's get out of here. We can call in the good news," Johnson said as the team moved towards the exit. All of the sudden alarms started blaring, making the entire team jump towards cover.

"Looks like we'll be fight our way out," Johnson yelled over the alarms, "Move it, move it, move it!" The squad moved towards to the exit when five enemy soldiers ran down the hallway and stopped right in front of the team. Pyro didn't hesitate and mowed down all five with his LMG. As the roar of the LMG dimmed, the Special Forces team heard the missile launch. 'Got out of there, just in time,' Johnson thought as the team didn't stop. 'Let's not cut it that close again.' They ran past the bodies and went back the way they came. This time, however, they didn't stop at the intersections. Johnson and Pyro were in front, followed by Malarkey and Joker, while Aztec and Doc brought up the rear. From time to time they would run into guards as they ran down the corridors to their stations. Before they had time to react, however, they were mowed down by both Johnson and Pyro.

When they got to the security room, several enemy soldiers were standing there. Both Johnson and Pyro ducked back into cover as the soldiers fired upon their position. Johnson pulled out two frag grenades, he handed one to Pyro. They both then pulled the pins and heaved the grenades down the hallway. Shouts of warning quickly followed by two loud thumps. Johnson and Pyro both leaned out and opened fire on anything that still looked alive. Several of the enemies tried to dive but fell short, and they were killed by the grenades. A few were unlucky enough and were blown apart.

"Malarkey, Joker, move up!" Johnson shouted as he covered the enemies on the ground. The two operatives ran up and took cover near the door of the security room. Malarkey pulled out a grenade and tossed it into the room. After a thump both Joker and Malarkey ran into the room, gunfire followed them as they eliminated the few soldiers that had made it into the 'safety' of the security room.

"Contact rear!" Aztec shouted as he and Doc both opened fire on enemies behind them.

"Move up, let's get out of here troopers!" Johnson yelled. He and Pyro spun around the corner and both Aztec and Doc followed quickly. Johnson and Pyro then opened fire at the corner further down the hallway that the enemy guards were taking cover in.

"Doc, Aztec, secure our exit to the house above. Joker, Malarkey, get into that room and cover them," Johnson shouted as he loaded one of the AK clips he had into his SCAR. The operatives snapped to and ran to complete their orders. Johnson and Pyro continued to lay down heavy suppressive fire.

"Sarge! Contact to your left!" yelled Aztec as fire opened fire, "We've been flanked!"

"Fight through them," Johnson yelled, "Tag 'em and frag 'em!"

"Frag out!" yelled Joker as he threw a frag grenade towards then enemies. The grenade exploded when it just sailed by the corner; killing the enemies while the corner protected the operatives. Aztec and Doc ran to the corner and peeked around. Aztec then signaled for Joker and Malarkey to move. Johnson then fired a few more rounds at the enemies that he and Pyro had pinned.

"Pyro, we need to move back. Let's go," Johnson said as he pulled out a smoke grenade, "Smoke-pop!" He threw the smoke grenade down the hall. Pyro let loose with a sustained burst from his M240B to suppress the enemies as the smoke built up. As soon as he couldn't see beyond the smoke any more Johnson and Pyro ran towards the exit.

"Friendlies coming around!" Johnson yelled as they approached the corner. Both Johnson and Pyro took the corner so fast that both of their boots squealed on the floor.

"Get down!" Joker yelled. Both Pyro and Johnson dove to the floor as both Malarkey and Joker fired as hostiles behind them. Pyro and Johnson then low-crawled along the floor as Malarkey and Joker suppressed the enemy. Joker then fired one 40mm grenade down the corridor. When it exploded, both Johnson and Pyro leapt to their feet and dove through the doorway.

"Let's go, up the ladder. Move!" Johnson yelled.

"I'll cover, move!" Pyro said. Malarkey started climbing up the ladder as Pyro started to spray down the hall. Joker followed Malarkey up the ladder.

"Pyro, time to go!" Johnson said as he tapped Pyro on the shoulder.

"Alright, Sarge. After you," Pyro replied as he pulled out a smoke grenade and set it off at the base of the ladder. Johnson then pulled out another frag grenade and tossed it out into the hallway. After the grenade exploded, the smoke had filled the room and both Pyro and Johnson all but flew up the ladder.

"Seal the hatch," Johnson said as he climbed out of the hole in the floor. Joker came over and planted a C-4 charge on the trapdoor.

"Alright, everyone double-time to the extract point. Time to get out of here," Johnson said as the team fell back. As they get out of the empty house and got near the stone wall, they heard an explosion from behind them. The explosion knocked them all onto the ground and the house collapsed. 'Hopefully that will buy us some time to get out of here before we bomb this island back to the Stone Age,' Johnson thought as he and his team picked himself up off the ground.

"Alright, that just bought us some time. Let's get out of here. Double-time it troopers," Johnson said as the team started running for the dock area.

"Sleepy Hollow, this is Ghost Stalker. The missile launched but is set to splash down in the middle of the ocean. We need extract ASAP. We are falling back to-" Johnson said before being cut off by gunfire.

"Contact rear!" yelled Malarkey. The entire team turned around and opened fire.

"There must have been more than one entrance!" yelled Pyro as he laid down heavy suppressive fire.

"Alright, Fall back! Fighting retreat!" Johnson yelled as he, Aztec, and Doc stood up and ran towards the docks while Malarkey, Joker and Pyro stayed were they dropped and laid down as much fire as they could. After running around fifteen yards, leaping over walls when they got in their way, Johnson's team ducked and pressed themselves to the stone wall and started providing Pyro, Joker and Malarkey covering fire.

"Alpha team set," Johnson said over the squad radio.

"Bravo bounding," Malarkey replied.

"Bravo bound," Johnson said. Malarkey's team stood up and ran towards Johnson's team. When Malarkey's group ran past Johnson's group, Johnson's group really let loose with their rifles. Bravo team leapt over another of the stone walls and started firing their rifles over Alpha team's heads.

"Bravo team set," Malarkey said.

"Alpha team bounding," Johnson replied.

"Alpha team bound," Malarkey replied. Malarkey's SCAR-H was reaping a bloody toll on the enemy soldiers. Every round Malarkey fired from his rifle, an enemy soldier was sent to his maker. Alpha team ran crouched down to allow Bravo to keep them covered. When they made it to the last stone wall Alpha dove over it while Bravo helped them over. As soon as Alpha made it into cover the gunfire from the hostiles' side increased tenfold. All of the sudden a RPG flew over the stone wall and smashed into the harbor; blowing a gaping hole in the wooden dock.

"Where did that come from?" Joker asked rhetorically.

"Where do ya think?" replied Aztec as he returned fire.

"Holy!" Pyro said when he looked over the wall, "Company sized enemy forces my-" An RPG flew over Pyro's head and he ducked. Another hole was blown into the dock.

"Sarge, I think this party is getting a little crowded," Malarkey yelled over the rise volume of gunfire.

"I'll call in for that air support Command promised us," Johnson replied. As he lean over his cover and fired his rifle a few times.

"Sleepy Hollow, this is Ghost Stalker, requesting immediate air support. Situation is going downhill fast," Johnson said over the radio.

"Ghost Stalker, this is Sleepy Hollow, air support is not available at this time," replied the radio operator on the USS Enterprise.

"Sleepy Hollow, say again, what do you mean air support isn't available. We need priority air support now! There are too many hostiles for Extract to land. We need some air strikes over here now!" Johnson said as he fired his rifle at the advancing enemy forces.

"Negative. We can't send any air support units to your location at this time," replied Sleepy Hollow.

"Well, how about some Destroyer support? Or what about the Tomahawk? Even spit balls would be helpful," Johnson said.

"Sorry, no support can be deployed at this time," replied the radio operator.

"What is going on Sleepy Hollow? We were promised some support!" Johnson said.

"I'm sorry Ghost Stalker, but I can't tell you. Not over this line," replied Sleepy Hollow. A RPG smashed into the stone wall to the right of the Special Forces team and sent the stones flying everywhere. This was quickly followed up by two more RPGs that slammed into the ground just in front of their cover, which showered them in dirt.

"Sleepy Hollow, this is Ghost Stalker. We are getting pounded down here! Where is our air cover?!" Johnson yelled over the radio as he leaned out of cover and fired his rifle.

"The air support is needed elsewhere. Extraction is on route. Hold your position. Extract's ETA is ten minutes," the man on the other end of the radio replied, calmly. This infuriated Johnson.

"We'll be dead for five by then! We need those CAPs here now!" Johnson yelled as he ducked because a RPK turned its fury onto his position. He leaned back out and shot three times before being driven back into cover. Joker fired his M302; the 40mm grenade landed next to the hostile with the RPK, killing him. Pyro leaned up, over his cover, and fired his LMG. He suppressed the hostiles as the rest of the squad opened up, desperately trying to silence as many of the enemies guns as possible. Johnson stopped firing and looked up as a shadow passed over his position. He saw a strange craft flying over their position, and it landed close to their extraction point. Malarkey, Doc, and Aztec paused firing their weapons to reload while Pyro and Joker kept blazing away. Johnson then looked at the craft as a ramp lowered and what looked like a wolf ran out. Johnson tried to piece together what it was saying as it ran by, but the roar of combat was too loud.

"Pyro, Joker, unidentified at our six. Whatever it is, it's unarmed and unarmored. Get it out of this combat zone. If this is first contact, I'd like the alien's representative to survive long enough to talk to us. Move out, the rest of us will cover you," Johnson said over the squad's radio, as Joker and Pyro paused to reload, "Go, now!" Pyro and Joker ran from cover and straight towards the wolf while everyone else hammered away at the enemy's positions. The wolf could not have chosen a worse place to be. It was out in the middle of the 'street' and it had no cover or concealment at all as the portions of the stone wall in that area had been destroyed by RPGs. It was completely exposed to enemy fire. When Pyro and Joker got to the wolf, Joker tackled it to the ground and Pyro dropped to one knee and let loose with his LMG. Johnson could hear what Joker was saying over the squad's radio.

"Get down, and stay down. I don't know who or what you are, but I got good money that says you are not bullet-proof. Get out of here, we'll cover you," Joker yelled. As he pushed himself to his feet, he started firing his rifle when Pyro got hit multiple times. The rounds punched through his Kevlar, went through his chest, and out his back. Pyro was thrown backwards due to the amount of rounds he took.

"Pyro!" Johnson yelled over the radio.

"Doc, Pyro's hit! Get over here!" Joker yelled, as he shot his rifle with one hand and pushed the wolf out of the way with the other. The wolf must have wised up as it ran towards cover, Joker followed close behind. The wolf dove into cover and as Joker got ready to follow, he suddenly dropped; blood exploded from his neck.

"Doc, Joker is down. He's been hit in the neck!" Johnson yelled again as Doc, changed course and ran towards Joker. "Malarkey, Aztec! Fall back. We need to reestablish our lines!" Johnson, Malarkey, and Aztec stopped firing and ran towards the wolf creature. All three made it to the cover that the wolf was cowering behind. Malarkey ran over towards Joker as Doc stopped working on Joker and ran towards Pyro. He fired his rifle to give himself some cover.

"Joker's had it!" Malarkey yelled over the noise of gunfire as he dragged Joker's corpse into cover.

"Sleepy Hollow, this is Ghost Stalker. We are dying out here! Where is our air cover!?" Johnson yelled into the radio.

"Extraction is only eight minutes out. We don't have anything to give you at this time," Sleepy Hollow said over the radio.

"I have two casualties, ONE CONFIRMED KIA and the other isn't looking too good either! Don't tell me that you have nothing to give me! You're on a freaking aircraft carrier. Launch some fighters and get me some air cover NOW!" Johnson yelled back. Malarkey was thrown backwards, his head snapped back. He landed on the ground, a hole in his helmet.

"Malarkey!" shouts Johnson.

"Doc, Malarkey is down and down hard!" Aztec yelled over the squad radio. Johnson looked over at Doc and saw him carrying Pyro over to their position. He made it into cover as a RPG flew right past him.

"Aztec, take out the RPGs!" Johnson yelled and he continued to fire at the hostiles, "Doc, how's Pyro doing?"

"Pyro bought it. Rounds tore through both of his lungs, his spine, and heart. He was dead before he hit the ground," Doc said as he dragged Pyro's body back into cover. He then raised his rifle to fire once more.

"Sarge, where is our air cover?" asks Aztec.

"We have no air cover! Command has seen fit to assign them elsewhere. We're on our own!" Johnson yelled. Both Aztec and Doc looked at him for a split second before they returned to firing at the approaching enemy.

"This is FUBAR sir!" yelled Aztec as he dropped back into cover to reload.

"Negative, this is just SNAFU Aztec," Johnson replied as he slammed a fresh clip into his SCAR-H rifle.

"RPG!" yelled Doc as he dove behind cover. Both Johnson and Aztec ducked behind their cover as a RPG slammed into the cover Doc was using. It detonated, and then they both were back up firing their weapons.

"Hey Doc, how are you do-" Johnson said but stopped as he looked over at Doc. Doc was missing one leg, an arm, and his head while everything else was badly chewed up from shrapnel.

"Aztec, Doc's down!" Johnson said as Aztec looked over at Doc's corpse. Aztec said something in his native language that sounded something like a curse before he was back to engaging the enemy.

"Sleepy Hollow, this is Ghost Stalker. We have FOUR KIA! We need that air cover NOW!" Johnson shouted over the radio, "and don't tell me that you have nothing to give me you pencil-pushing desk jockey, or when I get out of this, I personally will RING YOUR NECK!" Sleepy Hollow didn't reply as Johnson went back to firing at the enemy. Johnson looked over at the alien craft and saw sparks of light coming from it as bullets ricocheted off of it. He then looked at the wolf cowering at his feet. It looked like a six foot six grey wolf that had human hands and legs. It also looked female to him, due to the large chest area. Johnson shook his head and returned to firing his rifle. His rifle clicked on empty. He dropped the clip from the weapon and reached for a new mag, but he couldn't find one. He looked down at his vest and saw that he has expended all of his ammunition.

"Aztec, I'm out!" Johnson yelled.

"I'm running low too," Aztec yelled back as he ducks down and slapped a new clip in, "This is my last mag!"

"Aztec, grab Joker's weapon and use its M302 along with all of his ammo. I'll get Pyro's LMG!" Johnson said over the squad radio. Johnson quickly slid over to Pyro, who still had his weapon because of the sling it was attached to, and took the M240B LMG along with the ammo for it. Johnson set it on the cover he was using and opened fire. Aztec soon joined Johnson with the M302; 40mm rounds send hostile soldiers flying in pieces all over. Johnson then heard a thumping that did not come from gunfire. He ducked down and looked up. He saw two Apache Longbow gunships fly over them and open up with their Hydra missiles and M230, thirty-cal machine gun. A MH-60L DAP Blackhawk flew towards them.

"Aztec! Extract is here! Let's go, we are not leaving anyone behind!" Johnson yelled as he slung his weapon and dragged both Pyro and Malarkey towards the Blackhawk.

"You got it, Sarge!" Aztec yelled back as he drags Joker and what remains of Doc.

The Blackhawk landed; a few of the crew disembarked and open fire at the hostiles with their M16A4 rifles. The door gunner facing the enemy opened up with his M134 mini-gun. They gave Johnson and Aztec some covering fire. Johnson made it to the Blackhawk and he started to load Pyro and Malarkey on board when Aztec made it to the bird. Aztec then turned around and ran back to the cover he and Johnson were at and picked the wolf up.

"Aztec, what are you doing?!" Johnson yelled over the squad radio, as he loaded both Joker and Doc's corpses onto the bird.

"My job, sir," he replied as he all but dragged the wolf towards its ship. "Get out of here!" he yelled as he pushed the wolf into the ship. Aztec then fell with a short scream of pain.

"Aztec!" Johnson yelled. He ran towards Aztec, and found him lying on the ramp, dead from a round to the back of the neck; his throat torn open by the large round. The wound misted the large wolf with Aztec's blood. The grey wolf was red in some places with the amount of blood that came from Aztec. Johnson grabbed Aztec by his drag handle and let his weapon hang by its sling as he pulled out his sidearm. He shot the wolf alien a glare and dragged Aztec towards the Blackhawk, as he fired his pistol in one hand to give himself some covering fire. Once he got to the Blackhawk, he loaded Aztec's body on the Blackhawk before he took a bullet himself. Johnson fell with a cry of pain. The crew chief pulled Johnson onto the Blackhawk and it took off. Johnson stared up the ceiling of the Blackhawk as a person started to bind his chest wound. Johnson noticed the edge of his vision rapidly going black.

"It's all their fault," he whispered before the darkness took him.

Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

Johnson slowly woke up. His chest throbbed as his senses came back to him. He slowly opened his eyes. The room was dark, and he heard a constant beeping noise. Slowly the fog of unconsciousness left his mind and he realized he was in a hospital. He then remembered what had happened on the last mission. Tears stung his eyes as he silently mourned for the loss of his brothers.

After what had felt like hours, Johnson was able to reign in on his emotions and started to look around the room. It was a fairly standard hospital room. Two doors, a nightstand, an IV of saline attached to him along with a heart monitor, a window, and a bed. One of the doors must have led to a bathroom and the other to a hallway. All of the suddenly one of the doors opened and a doctor walked in, but Johnson was more focused on what followed the doctor in; a six foot, black and white colored, wolf. The doctor looked and noticed that Johnson was awake.

"Ah, you're awake. How are you feeling, Sergeant?" the doctor asked as he wrote something on a clipboard in his hands.

"Fine, sir. Permission to speak freely, sir?" Johnson asked while glaring daggers at the wolf.

"Uh," the doctor said stunned by the question, "Yeah, permission granted. What's up Sergeant?"

"What is that thing doing here?" Johnson demanded, not once taking his eyes off the female wolf; now that he could see her better.

"Stacey here is my assistant. She wants to learn about our physiology, and is currently trying to become a doctor here on Earth," the Doc replied.

"If I may, Sergeant, why are you glaring at me like that? Have I done something to upset you?" the wolf asked.

"I can't tell you. But I can say that if it weren't for you and your kind, I wouldn't be in this bed right now," Johnson stated, anger tinting his voice.

"I-I'm sorry. If we got here earlier we could have-" the wolf said, ears flat against her head, before Johnson interrupted.

"Earlier? Earlier?! If you got here LATER I wouldn't BE here in this bed. If you had gotten here LATER, my men wouldn't be DEAD! It's because-" Johnson yelled before being interrupted by the Doctor.

"That is ENOUGH, Sergeant!" the Doctor said loudly, "I don't know what happened, and I don't care. You do not have the right to speak to her like that. Calm down, now!" Johnson continued to glare at the wolf. "That is an order, Sergeant!"

"Sir, yes sir," Johnson stated robotically.

"Stacey, can you please leave. I don't need this patient any more antagonized the he already is," the doctor said calmly.

"Of course Doctor," she said, obviously hurt by Johnson's anger, as she turned and left.

"Sergeant, what is your major malfunction?!" the Doctor demanded.

"She is sir, and all of her kind, sir," Johnson stated, now glaring at the doctor.

"What did they do to your men, Sergeant?" the doctor asked; obviously he was forcing himself to calm down.

"I can't tell you, sir. It's classified, Top Secret. You don't need to know," Johnson said.

"Can you at least try and be civil, Sergeant? Their kind has suffered a lot recently and they are trying to help us not make the same mistake as them," the doctor said.

"Not unless they can bring my men back, sir," Johnson stated.

"Sergeant, be reasonable-" the Doctor said.

"Negative, Doc. I don't want any of those things near me. They have brought me nothing but heartache and bullet wounds. They had blatantly got my men killed. If they want any form of forgiveness from me, they can start by trying to explain to the families of my men why they were killed. After that, and only after that, then maybe they can try and apologize to me," Johnson said as he stared right into the Doctor's eyes. The doctor must have seen something he didn't like as he looked away almost immediately after Johnson finished.

"If it wasn't for them, Sergeant," the doc said suddenly, "you wouldn't be here. The wound you took punctured a lung, ricocheted off your spine, and nicked your heart. They saved you, Sergeant. You own them, whether you like it or not." The doctor then turned and left the room. Johnson watched as the doctor left.

"Maybe they should have let me die, then," he whispered, and then he laid back on the bed and fell asleep.

Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, 4 April 2009, 0800H (local)

Johnson woke up quickly. The first thing he noticed was that his chest no longer hurt, and that he no longer had a saline IV in his arm. He sat up and looked around again. He noticed that there was a fresh set of fatigues on one of the nightstands. Johnson stood up, grabbed the uniform, and walked into the bathroom. After taking care of some business, he took off the hospital gown and dressed himself in the ACU. He then stepped out back into his hospital room. Johnson walked over to the nightstand next to the bed and found his wallet, iPod, cell-phone, and a letter. Johnson put his wallet, iPod, and cell-phone in one of his pockets and then opened the letter.

It read, 'Dear First Sergeant Eric Johnson, I know that there should be more celebration for this, but I know you would agree with me on the fact that this is neither the time nor the place for such a thing. Enclosed is your new promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 3 in the United States Special Forces. I also have pushed for you to receive a direct commission to First Lieutenant. Congratulations. I just wish that I could have awarded you this both in person and after a successful mission with the rest of your team there to pat you on the back. Although no one will ever know of this mission, they will never be forgotten among those of us in the Special Forces. Good Luck, Chief Warrant Officer Eric Johnson. Colonel Steve Black, USSOCOM.'

Johnson sighed as he reached into the letter and grabbed his new rank insignias. He attached his proper rank to his uniform as he took the remaining new rank pins and placed them back in the letter, along with his old First Sergeant rank insignia. He then heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Johnson said. The Doctor from yesterday entered.

"Good to see you up and about Sergeant-" the Doctor said before he noticed the new insignia, "I mean, Warrant. I have a new letter for you. Here." The doctor handed over a letter that was from the Colonel.

"Thank you, sir," Johnson said as he opened the letter.

It read, 'Chief Warrant Officer Eric Johnson, I don't know if you had gotten my previous letter. If you haven't then congrats on the promotion, read my other letter for more information on that along with your new rank insignias. I know I started this off formally but this is more of a personnel letter from me. I noticed that since you signed up, you had never taken a day of leave. I urge you to make use of that leave now. Take a break from the military and go enjoy life for a while. I think it would do you some good. Take it easy, Eric. Sincerely, Steve Black.'

Johnson looked through the letter one last time before he put it back in the envelope and placed it in one of his pockets along with the other letter. He looked at the doctor.

"Thank you, sir. If you don't mind, I would like to leave as soon as possible, sir," Johnson said.

"Oh yeah, sure. Here, sign this and we'll get you some transport back to the States," the doctor said. He handed Johnson a clipboard and showed Johnson where to sign it. Johnson signed his name on the line and then handed the clipboard back. The doctor took the clipboard and looked back at Johnson.

"Well, this way, Warrant. I'll lead you out," the doctor said as he opened the door to the room. Johnson followed him out. Outside he saw Stacey standing there. When she saw Johnson, her ears went flush against her head and her gaze dropped.

"Good morning, Sergeant," she said uneasily.

"I'm now a Chief Warrant Officer, ma'am," Johnson said without a hint of emotion.

"Oh, sorry," she said meekly. Johnson didn't acknowledge her apology and he followed after the doctor. Stacey's tail went straight between her legs and curled around her ankle.

"I still see that you are angry at them, Warrant. feel like explaining why now?" the doctor asked, not once glancing at Johnson.

"I can't tell you. Unless one of my higher-ups tells me that I can tell you, you'll never know," Johnson said, again emotionlessly. The Doctor sighed and shook his head. They both went to an elevator and went down to the lobby.

"Good luck, Warrant. These people are a part of our society now. You're going to have to learn to live with them," the doctor said.

"I can live with them, just I don't want-" Johnson said before he saw two vixens, a female Siberian tiger, and a blue female dragon standing in the lobby talking, "How many different kinds of these beings are there?"

"There are four kinds: canines, felines, foxes, and dragons. And just to let you know, they had a war that wiped out most of their male population. There is a reason why Stacey took your anger so personally," the doctor said.

"Perfect," Johnson grumbled. They both then walked out into the lobby.

"I'll take care of all of the paper work for you, Warrant. You can get a Taxi to take you to the airport, if you want," the Doctor said as he left. Johnson sighed as he walked towards the door.

"Wait, I recognize that uniform!" Johnson heard someone say, "Hey, soldier wait!" Johnson stopped and looked behind him and saw the tiger from before run up to him. Johnson turned to face the tiger.

"Yes?" Johnson said.

"What's your name?" the tiger asked, her tail flicked around excitedly.

"Chief Warrant Officer Eric 'Sa-'" Johnson said before he stopped, "Eric 'Ghost' Johnson."

"What do you do? In the military, I mean?" she asked.

"I'm a logistics expert. And before you ask, I was sent here because I was suffering from heat exhaustion," Johnson said as he made up the lie on the fly.

"Really? I could have sworn that you were rushed in here with a gunshot wound to the chest..." she said as she looked at Johnson as if she caught him in a lie.

"You must be mistaken. I've never been in a combat zone in my life. I haven't even fired a rifle since basic about ten years ago," Johnson said as he started to walk away, "Been fun, but I really need to get going."

"No, I remember your face. You were the one with the bad chest wound. If it wasn't for us being here you'd be dead," she said with finality.

"Alright then, you caught me. However, if it weren't for you, I would have never received said chest wound. Now, BACK OFF, ma'am. I have a plane to catch," Johnson said, as he glared at the tiger before he turned around and walked out of the hospital. When he got outside, he took out a green beret and placed it on his head, then he hailed for a Taxi.

"Eric!" Johnson heard from behind him. He didn't turn to acknowledge the call, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything. I just wanted to know where you got that wound."

"First, DO NOT call me by my first name. I don't know you and you don't know me. We are not friends, and even then you do not call me by my first name. Do it one more time, and I WILL kill you. Second, I can't tell you. If I could, I would, and then you have the slightest idea of the pain I have to endure for the rest of my life because of your kind. Now if you don't mind, good bye," Johnson said as he tried to hail another Taxi that drove right by him.

"Here, I'll take you wherever you need to go, as an apology for offending you. Please," the tiger behind him said, with a hint of hurt in her voice.

"I'll be fine," Johnson said emotionlessly.

"Why don't you take her up on her offer Mister Johnson? I don't think you understand how much she is sorry for what she did-" another voice from behind Johnson said before he cut the voice off.

"If you really want my forgiveness, bring back my squad," Johnson said harshly.

"Where are they, we could pick them up along the way," the tiger said hurriedly, before she suddenly stopped.

"What he means is that they are dead," the other voice said. The tiger gasped, "I think I know where they are. If you'll come with us, you can escort them back to their families. We would be honored if you'll let us do this," the voice said.

"No," Johnson said as a Taxi pulled up. Johnson got in as he looked at the tiger and the blue dragon that were standing behind him. He slammed the door shut and said, "To the airport, I have brothers to escort home." The Taxi took off, leaving a tiger halfway to tears and a dragon trying to console the tiger.

When the Taxi pulled up to the airport, Johnson got out, walked up to the Taxi driver and said, "How much?"

"No charge. It's the least I can do for a soldier such as yourself, Warrant," the Taxi driver said, "The US gave some of its best recently. I remember having to do this duty myself, it was something that I could never forget. And yes, I did my service as well sir. Former Gunnery Sergeant Luke Fisher, USMC. Call it something I feel like I have to do. Semper Fi, Warrant."

"De Oppresso Liber, Gunny," Johnson said, "and thanks." Johnson then walked into the airport. Inside a soldier ran up to Johnson.

"Sir, here is your tickets. Compliments of Colonel Black, sir," the soldier said with a salute.

"Thank you, Corporal. Please inform the Colonel that Ghost thanks him for the tickets," Johnson said as he returned the salute.

"Sir, Colonel Black also asked if you wanted to escort your unit back to the States," the soldier said as he stood at parade rest.

"As you were, Corporal, and yes. I would like to," Johnson said, "Where are they?"

"They are on your flight, sir. There is a fresh uniform waiting for you. This way, sir," the Corporal said as he walked off. Johnson followed the soldier into a room and changed into the formal uniform waiting there. He was then given a US flag and the personal effects for Joker and told to meet the four others who would also be escorting his unit back. Johnson walked to the waiting gate. He kept his gaze straight ahead and focused only on his steps and his immediate surroundings. He then found four other formally dressed Special Forces operatives standing near a gate. He walked up to them and nodded his salute to the senior enlisted personnel standing there. When they boarded the plane, all of them were seated in different sections of the plane. Right next to him sat a female wolf and a female tiger. They looked at him, and then to the flag that was seated securely on his lap. After they took off the wolf had finally worked up the courage to speak.

"Um... Excuse me Sir, what are you doing with that flag?" she asked.

"Escorting a brother home," Johnson replied solemnly as he looked out the window. She looked quizzically at Johnson, then at the tiger. The tiger shrugged her shoulders. The rest of the flight went by quietly as Johnson continued to look out the window of the plan. He saw several ships that didn't look human in origin so he chalked it up to the aliens seated beside him. Johnson pulled out his iPod, and put "Empty Boots" by Joshua Revak on. Tears stung his eyes as he remembered the times that he had with his unit, both the fun times and times during war. Again, he silently mourned the loss of his unit. Finally the tears slid down his face. 'Why was I the only one to survive?' he mentally asked himself as he silently cried. After a while he was able to recompose himself and wiped away the tears.

"Sir, are you ok?" the tiger next to him asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said as he forced his voice to sound normal.

"Everyone, please prepare for landing," the Captain said over the intercom. Fifteen minutes later, the plane touched down and taxied to the terminal. "If everyone could stay seated for a moment, I'd like to make an announcement. Today on this flight, we had the privilege and honor of bringing five soldiers back home. Five soldiers who had just recently gave their lives in the defense of the United States. If everyone could wait to allow the honor guard to get off first, it would be greatly appreciated," he said. The atmosphere in the plan immediately turned sober as people digested what had just been said. A few people turned their attentions on the soldiers that had ridden the plane with them. The wolf looked over at Johnson as he stood up and squeezed his way into the isle. As the five soldiers left, Johnson being the last of them, the wolf looked out the window. She saw five caskets being prepared to be removed from the plane. She pointed to them and the tiger, whom looked over and saw the caskets as well.

"So that's what he meant. No wonder he was crying during the flight," Johnson overheard the tiger say as he made his way off the plan and to perform his duty of checking and guarding the casket.

"What do you mean?" the wolf asked.

"Each of those boxes contains the remains of a dead soldier. He is part of an honor guard. He is escorting one of those soldiers back to his family to be buried," the tiger explained, "As far as most humans are concerned, those dead soldiers are heroes, because they gave their lives to defend this country that we are in."

"Oh," the wolf said as she understood everything that was going on. Johnson then left the plane, and preformed his duty as an honor guard. The pilot of the aircraft suddenly walked up to the honor guard group.

"Hey, Warrant. Can I ask you a question?" the pilot asked, Johnson nodded his head. "What were their names?"

"Staff Sergeant James 'Pyro' Taggert, Corporal Raymond 'Joker' O'Malley, Sergeant First Class David 'Doc' Stevenson, Staff Sergeant Victor 'Aztec' Alavi, and Master Sergeant Rueben 'Malarkey' Michael. All of them United States Special Forces. All of them KIA not too long ago," Johnson said.

"Thank you, I served in the Air Force when I was younger. When I got out, I swore that if I ever carried a fallen hero on my plane, I would memorize their name and never forget who they were. Thank you, Warrant," the pilot said before he left the group. Johnson then walked to the next gate to get on the next plane with the other honor guards. He then noticed that Joker's wife was standing there. Johnson looked to the four other soldiers standing next to him.

"Hold up guys, that's the family of one of the soldiers there," he said as he pointed to the woman. Johnson walked up to her. Joker's wife, Carla O'Malley, recognized him immediately.

"Hey there, Sarge! Where is Ray?" she asked before she noticed Johnson's rank insignia, "Oh, hey you were promoted! Congratulations."

"Yeah, thanks, but... I hate to tell you but... Joker was killed on the twenty seventh of March," Johnson said. The shock hit her a few moments later.

"No...no...He can't, he... no...no...Please tell me this is some cruel joke," she looked to Johnson, tears in her eyes. As Johnson looked into her eyes that were pleading to him that this was all some big mistake, Johnson felt a part of him shatter.

"No. I really wish it were," Johnson whispered so softly that he almost didn't hear himself. She dropped to her knees and cried. Another of the honor guard ran over to Johnson. Johnson handed him the flag and the small equipment bag he was carrying and moved to hold Carla as she cried. A feline ran over.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Her husband was just killed. I had just informed her about it, as her husband would have wanted it to be me to tell her," Johnson said as he focused completely on Carla, who continued to cry, and he didn't even notice who he was talking to.

"Oh, did you know him?" she asked as she put a hand on Carla.

"Yeah, he was a Corporal in my unit, I was there when he was killed," Johnson said.

"How was he... How did he..." she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I can't tell you," Johnson said as he finally looked up from Carla and looked at the newcomer. He was instantly put on guard. "Who are you anyway?" Johnson snapped.

"I'm Carla's new neighbor, Katie. Although, most humans I've met call me Kat. They seem to think it's funny. I moved in to the empty house across the street from her," Katie said, Johnson was then slightly put at ease by her answer, knowing the house she now lived in, and he lightly chuckled at her nickname.

"Well, Kat. Can you drive her home? I don't think she is in the condition to drive," Johnson said.

"If you can answer me one question," she replied.

"As long as it has nothing to do with how Corporal Raymond 'Joker' O'Malley was killed, then alright. Shoot," Johnson said.

"Why did you laugh when I told you most humans call me Kat?" she asked.

"'Cause most humans will give each other nicknames when they become good friends. For instance, most of my unit called me 'Sarge' back when I was a First Sergeant. The most common nickname for Katie is Kat. A cat is a lot like what you look like, hence why it is funny. Yes, humanity is crazy like that, although for men like me, it's almost a requirement for jokes like that to be thrown around. Especially in the line of work we do. Raymond was the best in the entire ODC, if not the Forces, hence why he was nicknamed Joker," Johnson explained.

"Alright, I'll take her home. By the way, what is your name?" Kat asked.

"Chief Warrant Officer 'Ghost.' I'd tell you the rest, but being active duty Special Forces and all..." Johnson said.

"One last question; why Ghost?" she asked, as Carla finally cried herself to sleep.

"Because, that's all I am. Nothing but a Ghost," Johnson whispered as he dropped his gaze.

"Oh, OH... I'm sorry. Good luck, Ghost. I wish you the best," Kat said.

"Yeah, thanks," Johnson said as he voice dropped off at the end. He looked over at the rest of the honor guard and saw that their faces also had a sorrowful look to them. Johnson then asked, "When is our next flight?"

"It isn't for another two hours," one of them said.

"Good," Johnson replied, "I need a drink."

"But sir," one of them interjected but one of the more senior soldiers shushed him.

"If you have been in this job as long as us, you'd understand what he is going through. Every soldier that we are escorting was in his unit," a Master Sergeant said, who also was Special Forces, "Actually, they WERE his unit. He is the only survivor of his unit. If anyone deserves a drink, it's him."

Johnson walked away as the rest of the honor guard, save one, went to the gate to wait for their plane. The one, who didn't go to the plane, went to do his honor guard duty so that Johnson could be with the rest of his unit as they were brought home. Johnson left the airport and walked into the first bar he could find. He sat down and a female wolf walked over.

"Hey there soldier. What can I get for you?" she asked.

"A beer please. I don't really care what kind," he said, as he tried to ignore the fact that the person getting him a beer looked a lot like the wolf that got his unit killed. She walked off and got him his drink.

"Sir, are you on duty?" she asked before she set the beer on the table.

"Yes, and I don't care what regs think about this. I need a drink. If you understood what I have just gone through, you'd agree," He said as he started on his beer. The wolf looked at him curiously and went back to work. After a few sips, he took a big gulp. He sputtered a bit as some of the bitter drink went down the wrong pipe. He coughed a bit and then went back to his drink. He drank it almost robotically. The wolf waiter then came back.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked. Johnson just shrugged and went back to his drink.

"You don't drink much do you?" she asked as she tried to strike up a conversation with Johnson.

"No, I don't," he said as he took another sip of his beer.

"Well, what happened? What has got you risking your military career just so you can get a drink" she asked.

"Besides the fact I just told my brother's wife that her husband isn't coming home...I can't tell you," Johnson said emotionlessly.

"Oh... I'm sorry for your loss," she said as her ears wilted. Hoping to change the mood slightly, "Why not?" she asked, "It helps if you talk about it."

"It's classified, that's why," he said as he continued to drink his beer.

"Well, what can you tell me about it that isn't classified?" she asked.

"I don't think you understand me. I can't tell you. I can't tell you anything," Johnson said, "Now leave me ALONE."

"Listen, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help you out, alright. I didn't mean to upset you, also for some reason you looked familiar," the waiter said as her ears went flat against her head again.

"No problem, just..." Johnson said, for some reason felt at ease with her around, before he noticed three guys wearing trench coats walk into the bar. Johnson's instincts were going crazy; something about those men didn't feel right.

"Stay here," he said as he stood up and walked towards the wall closest to the men. All of the sudden all three pulled out weapons and pointed them at the patrons.

"Hands up! This is a robbery! Get on the floor, now!" one of them yelled. Johnson's mind spiked with adrenaline. The one of the left held your, almost, standard nine millimeter pistol. 'It's a Ruger P95. That means he has ten round per mag, from the looks of the weapon it hasn't been cleaned for a while, about a two to three percent chance of it jamming after every shot,' Johnson's training told him instantly as he noticed the other two had Colt M1911 style handguns. 'Both are forty five ACP, which means seven rounds each. Those two guns seem to have been taken care of extremely well. Those two have a stance that shows that they know what they are doing. The one with the nine-millimeter doesn't seem to. He's too aggressive, cocky. All three of them haven't seen me yet. I have the element of surprise for now, I need to get just a little closer and strike fast. The sooner the two with the forty-fives are down, the sooner the rookie will run,' Johnson's training rapidly told him as he crept up on the three robbers. 'Just another day at the office,' Johnson thought as he grimly chuckled at the ancient military joke.

Johnson took two more silent steps before he leapt at the robber on the right. Not expecting the sudden attack, the robber's gun arm was easy to grab. Johnson hit the bottom of the gun, and slammed it right into the robbers face. He then drove his knee right into the robber's groin, and then smashed his knee into the robber's face. Blood spurted from the robber's broken nose and he dropped to the floor, unmoving. Johnson then quickly jumped at the robber in the center.

This one had more time to see the attack coming and was able to get one round off before being hit by Johnson. Johnson felt the round tear through his left arm and out as he slammed into the robber. They both fell to the ground; Johnson landed on top of the second robber. Johnson bit back the scream of pain from the wound and quickly point the weapon the robber had towards the last remaining robber. Not realizing where the gun was pointing, the center robber pulled the trigger. The round tore through the third robber's right shin and he dropped with a scream of pain.

Johnson then head butted the robber under him, and pushed himself to his feet. The third robber pointed his gun at Johnson. Johnson kicked the gun into the air as it went off, and then followed it up with another kick aimed at his groin. The third robber brought his leg up close to his chest as the kick landed right where it was aimed. Johnson looked at the gun the robber dropped and as he had expected, it was jammed. Johnson then grunted and the second robber jumped up and got him into a sleeper hold. Johnson's training automatically kicked in again and he brought his left arm forward and slammed it into his attacker's gut without thought or hesitation. Then Johnson threw his weight back and fell on top of the robber as he was recovering for the blow to the gut. They both landed on the ground with a loud thud. Johnson then snapped his head back and smashed the guy's nose with the back of his head with a satisfying crush. The arms around Johnson's neck loosened and he quickly stood up. He turned to the third man who was still curled up nursing his wounded pride. Johnson quickly went over and grabbed the nine-mil that lay a few feet away from him. He quickly worked the slide in such a way that indicated years of experience. He dropped the clip to check the ammo count; eight rounds. He then heard the sound of a knife leaving its sheath. Johnson spun and on instinct put up a standard knife defense block and blocked a downward slash.

The third robber had pulled a knife out of his coat. It was a civilian version of the Marine K-Bar. 'It's a good sized knife, but this punk doesn't know how to use it properly,' Johnson thought as training overtook rational thinking instantly. Johnson grabbed the wrist of the robber's knife hand and twisted it. Johnson then stamped hard on the assailants lead foot and pivoted on it, grinding his heel into the robber's foot and grinding it hard into the floor. The man screamed as Johnson put his back to the robber and drove the hyper-extended elbow into his shoulder with a satisfying crack. The knife dropped from the nerveless hand and stuck into the wood floor. Johnson then got off of the crook's foot and flipped him over his shoulder. The robber slammed into the ground with a loud grunt. Johnson then stamped onto the robber's face with a muffled crack, as the nose was broken. Johnson picked up the nine-millimeter that he dropped.

"Look out!" Johnson heard someone yell. Johnson spun on his heels and found the first robber he had dropped had grabbed the second robber's forty-five and had one in each hand. Without thinking, he threw himself to the right as his hands snapped out, aimed, and fired the weapon in his hands. The robber also fired his weapons, and sent lead flying towards Johnson. The rounds from both found purchase. Both rounds that Johnson fired found the robber in the head, dead center. The rounds that the robber had fired hit Johnson; three in the chest, two in the stomach, and one in the groin. The robber was dead before he hit the ground, Johnson landed with a scream of pain.

The shock of getting shot was setting in, and Johnson knew he was fighting an uphill battle against falling into shock, and the possibility even surviving the wounds. The waiter ran over and tried to put pressure on his wounds.

"M-m-med-dic," Johnson said as he fought to clear his mind and keep from going into shock.

"Shhh, don't say anything," the female wolf said as she reached into a pocket and pulled out of what looked like a cell phone. She did something that Johnson couldn't see to it and then spoke, "Hey this is Sarah. No listen this is an emergency. I need a shuttle here now!" Johnson's vision was beginning to dim, he fought harder in the mental battle that was waging, but deep down, he knew his number was up, "There is a man here bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. I don't care where she is, get her here NOW!" Johnson then fell unconscious.

Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

Johnson slowly woke up. When he realized that he fell asleep, he forced his eyes open with all of his adrenaline-enhanced strength. The room he was in was stark white and very bright, forcing him to close his eyes as they were unused to the brightness of the room. After giving his eyes a few moments to adjust, he looked around the room. There was a machine over his groin area and there were several new scars on his chest, gunshot wound scars. 'More scars to add to the collections... I hope it's true what they say, that ladies love scars,' Johnson thought as he looked around some more. A solid white room, a single door, and some machinery scattered around. The place had an antiseptic smell. 'Oh great, another hospital. I really need to stop getting shot. I don't think Uncle Sam will appreciate the amount he'll have to spend on all of my medical bills, hehe,' Johnson thought as the door opened. A Siberian Tiger walked in. She stood about five foot eleven, and had piercing blue eyes.

"Ah, Mister Johnson. I'm happy to see that you are awake. It was touch and go with you for a while there," the tiger said.

"I don't know who you are talking about, my name is Chief Warrant Officer 'Ghost.' I'm US Army Special Forces. Where am I?" Johnson asked.

"You're onboard our spacecraft. You are currently in our medical bay. My name is Tia," the female tiger said.

"And just what is that thing?" Johnson asked.

"That is a repair device. You took a bullet to your reproductive organs and it is repairing them," Tia answered.

"Ok, what other wounds did I sustain?" Johnson asked.

"Well, you took three bullets to the chest. From those, both of your lungs were punctured, both were what I think you'd call sucking chest wounds, and one hit your diaphragm. You took two wounds to the stomach and you already know about the one to your groin. Oh, and there was one to your left bicep," she said as the repair device beeped once and then seemed to shut off. Tia looked excited about that.

"Well, I better check the repair job," she said as she started to strip off the uniform she wore. Johnson was stunned into a stupor about the situation. Johnson's training kicked in and got him out of the stupor just as Tia removed the repair device. Johnson then noticed the size of Jimmy and the twins. 'Wow, goodbye mini me,' Johnson thought as Tia moved to straddle him. She leaned down to kiss Johnson as he quickly slid out from under her.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Get off of me!" Johnson demanded as he quickly pushed her off of him. He quickly got off the table and into a defensive fighting stance; weight on his right leg behind him, hands open and covering his upper body, and his body twisted so that he had a minimal target profile. He quickly looked around for either a weapon or, more preferably, some clothes. He found a set of ACUs near the table. He slowly moved towards them.

"What's wrong?" Tia asked as she got off the table, ears flat against her head. "Don't you want me?" Johnson, without taking his eyes off Tia, slipped on the shorts and pants of the ACUs.

"No. I don't! I don't want anything to have to do with you and your kind!" he said firmly as he grabbed the clothes and quickly put them on. His gaze didn't once stray from Tia's. He noticed that, for some reason, it looked like Tia was tearing up. Johnson all but threw the clothes on and started inching towards the door. Tia made no move to block him. Johnson then broke for the door. He ran through the door and took a right. He ran down the bland metallic hallway and as he ran around another corner, he ran into another person. Johnson quickly got back to his feet and noticed that he ran into another member of the crew of this ship; this one a dragon.

She stood at about seven foot five and had blue scales for the most part. Sky blue colored scales ran down her throat. Johnson couldn't see any more due to her uniform. Johnson quickly dodged past the fallen dragoness and continued to run down the hallway. He then caught a scent of something. His body started to feel hot, and his pants started to feel tight. He threw all thoughts out of his mind and suppressed all of his feelings. A doorway in front of him, to the right, opened and a panther stepped out. Johnson focused on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as he could. He saw a look of lust within her eyes as he stared straight into them and dodged left of the panther. She tried to grab him, but he threw himself forward into a roll and he continued to run without missing a beat. The hallway ended in a door, which was just opening. Johnson looked up just in time to run smack into a wolf. Johnson rebounded off the wolf, both of them fell to the floor.

"Hey! Watch where you are going! Oh! Soldier, glad to see you're still with us. I thought we lost you there," the wolf said. Johnson then tried to stand back up when he realized whom he had just tried to run through. It was the wolf from the island!

"What a minute! You're that wolf from the island!" Johnson said as emotions from that day welled up in him suddenly. Johnson clenched his fists. "You... You killed my team!" Johnson yelled as he stood up. The wolf stood back up, her ears laid flush with her head. Johnson then lashed out with his right hook, striking her in the muzzle. She recoiled from the hit with a yelp of pain. Johnson didn't let up and went after her before he was restrained from behind.

"Let me go! She was the one that killed my team! Let me go!" Johnson yelled as tears started to pour down his face and as he struggled against his captor. The wolf pushed herself to her feet, with her ears laid back and tail between her legs. She also started to tear up as one of her hands went to cover the area Johnson hit. Johnson eventually gave up on trying to get himself free and was content to just hang there and cry. His head fell and he fought a losing battle against the sobs that forced themselves from him. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him, but he didn't react. He heard comforting words but his mind didn't register them as he cried himself to sleep.

Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

"Pyro, Joker! Let's go! Get the lead out!" Johnson yelled as he leaned over his cover and fired his SCAR-H rifle. Pyro and Joker ran towards the figure in the distance. Doc, Aztec, and Malarkey added their firepower and tried to give covering fire to Pyro and Joker. Joker threw himself on the figure, and they both went to the ground. Pyro dropped to a knee and let looses with his M240B. Johnson looked over toward Doc, Malarkey, and Aztec as they stopped to reload their weapons.

"Aztec, Malarkey! Move towards the right flank and get a base of fire going from there!" Johnson yelled. The two indicated soldiers nodded and took off as he and Doc popped back up to give the two teams out of cover some covering fire. Joker seemed to be dragging something towards Johnson's location, with Pyro just behind him.

"Hurry it up Joker!" Johnson yelled as he dropped an RPG wielding enemy soldier with a well-placed shot to the chest. Joker dragged the figure behind the cover the Doc was using. All of the sudden the shooting stopped.

"It's your fault Sarge, you let us die," Joker said.

"What are you talking about Joker?" Johnson said as he looked over at him. Johnson gasped as he saw a hole in Joker's neck.

"Joker! Doc get over here!" Johnson yelled as he reached of his buddy aid kit.

"It's all your fault!" Pyro yelled as his ACUs started to turn blood red from several holes that opened up suddenly.

"Pyro?! What's going-" Johnson said when he is grabbed around the neck from behind.

"You let us die!" Malarkey's voice yelled from behind. The grip on Johnson's neck increased.

"You caused our deaths!" Aztec yelled as Johnson was surrounded by his comrades. Each of them had fatal wounds inflected upon them.

"It is all your fault!" a voice yelled and Johnson's eyes widened as a charred hand reached from behind the crowd. The hand descended onto Johnson face and dug into his face. Johnson yelled out in pain as the fingers began to cut through his skin and blood from the wounds started to flow into his mouth and eyes. Darkness then flooded Johnson's visions.

Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown

Johnson woke up with a scream. He was drenched in cold sweat as adrenaline raced through his system. As he gasped for breath Johnson quickly scanned around the room that he found himself in for any threats. He was laying in a bed and under the covers. The covers were wrapped around his body and were wet with his sweat. He extracted himself from the covers, and found himself with only his briefs on. Johnson got to his feet and looked around. The room seemed fairly standard; four walls, a nightstand, a dresser, and a walk-in closet. There was a door straight in front of the bed. Johnson looked around and found a set of ACUs laying on the dresser. He walked over and quickly put them on. After he straightened his uniform out Johnson heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said. The door slid open.

"I see you are awake. You seemed to have a restless night after we put you to bed after the incident yesterday," the person said. Johnson turned around and saw the blue dragoness standing there. "It is good to see you again, Mister Johnson."

"What a minute, you were the dragon from the hospital," Johnson said as the thought finally clicked in his mind.

"Yes, my name is Elizabeth," she said, "Are you ok? You seem a little pale."

"Yeah," Johnson said, "I'm fine. Just a bad dream, that's all."

"Must have been quite the nightmare," Elizabeth replied as she looked at the status of the bed.

"Nothing I haven't faced before," Johnson said, "If you don't mind, while I am in uniform, refer to me either by my rank or call me Ghost. No one is supposed to know my name that doesn't have the proper clearance."

"My apologies, Warrant. I didn't know," Elizabeth replied.

"Now, is there a way I can get in contact with my superiors?" Johnson asked.

"Of course. Right this way," she said as she started to walk towards the door, "I must apologize for Tia. She was out of line when you had just woken up after being shot."

"As long as you can promise that it will not happen again, we can consider that snafu as behind us," Johnson said, "I do, however, need to get in contact with my superiors and let them know that I am still alive and to get my new duty station. I am not getting paid to stand around all day and do nothing."

"Of course," she replied as they walked down a hallway, "However I must warn you that one of my crew, Jessica, is in heat. I would suggest that you stay away from her, or lock yourself in room for the duration of the trip, if you don't want to mate. We should get there tomorrow." Johnson stopped and stared at her when she finished. Elizabeth noticed the he stopped and turned around. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"What do you mean by 'duration of the trip'?" Johnson asked as his eyes narrowed.

"We currently are traveling to our home, Vega," she replied.

"What?! When did I agree to travel there?!" Johnson all but yelled.

"When we contacted your government a Colonel Black, I think, said that you wanted go with us. Are you saying that he lied?" Elizabeth asked.

"Colonel Steve Black?" Johnson asked. Elizabeth nodded.

"Oh! I just remembered, he also wanted me to give you this," she said as she handed over a letter, "He said to open it. He also said something about O C four seven two, I think it was."

"O C four seven two? Did he say B O C four seven two?" Johnson asked.

"Yeah! That was it," she replied.

"Are you sure it was Bravo Oscar Charlie four seven two," Johnson said.

"Yes, I am," she replied, "What does it mean?"

"You didn't open the letter. You did nothing with it but give it to me, right?" Johnson asked.

"I didn't do anything with it, as he instructed," she said. Johnson let out a sigh of relief.

"I need to be alone for a bit. Let everyone know I am not to be disturbed," Johnson said as he turned around and walked back to the room that he had woken up in. After he got in the room, Johnson shut and locked the door. He took the letter and opened it.

On it was, 'Ghost, if you got this letter than you know that you are on your way to Vega. I know this must seem like the worst posting you could have drawn; once you read this letter you will understand why I chose you for this assignment. SOCOM needs you to check their security procedures. Not everyone will accept this peace that has descended on Earth. Remember, "If you want peace, you must prepare for war." I know how you feel about these people, so I can trust that you'll do your absolute best to find their security's flaws. Intel already has pin-pointed several known terrorist cells on the move.

'We believe that a few of them have already boarded the ships. We have been able to stop them thus far and kept this situation from our new friends, but we don't know if any have snuck through. Your mission is three fold. One, check for any security flaws in their systems and see how big of a breach it is. Second, identify if any terrorists have made it past us. Third, if you do find any terrorists capture or neutralize them. There are weapons available for you that we placed in the hold. One SCAR-L with a 4X scope with twenty clips, one FNGL40-L with ten rounds, Remember, they do not know that they almost had several known terrorists sneak aboard their vessels.

'Don't inform them of that unless absolutely necessary. I trust your judgment on this, Warrant. You can inform them that you will be checking their security systems on your own, without their influence on the tests. If they ask why, tell them that it's SOP and that it needs to be done, whether we are at peace or at war until the SOP is changed. You can even tell them that we had Intel that something might happen and we just wanted to be overly cautious.

'If you need to contact us, make sure that the line is secure and that no one is in or near the room. The Anthro's have set up a "red phone" of sorts with us. The thing has more channels then satellite TV. We have been allocated a few channels. Just let them know that you need to talk to the White House. When someone picks up, tell them that you need to speak to Nomad about "Operation: Dark Lightning."

'Remember; this is a Black Ops code 472. Destroy this completely after you are done reading this. Objectives: 1.) Check the Anthro's security systems and make sure they are up to standard. 2.) Check all of the men that have been brought to Vega and make sure of their intensions. 3.) If anyone is confirmed as a terrorist, eliminate their theat. Nomad.'

Johnson took the letter and made sure that he has memorized all of the important information in it. He then ripped it and the envelope up and put them in one of his ACU's pockets, and stored it there. He walked over to the door and unlocked it. As he did that, he heard someone knock on the door. Johnson then opened the door and saw Elizabeth standing there, and behind her were Tia and Sarah.

"Yes?" Johnson asked.

"We just came to see if you were alright," Sarah said. Tia nodded her head slightly as her ears laid flat.

"Yeah I am fine, and Elizabeth, it seems the good Colonel has seen fit to assign me to check out your planet for a while. He made sure to emphasize that I was to, in his words, kick back and relax as well as enjoy myself while I am there. Despite the fact that I am supposed to be here to check out your kind's security systems and make sure they are up to our standards. Although, with the tech level I have seen so far, I doubt that will be an issue," Johnson explained.

"So why are you being sent to Vega? And why would they say that you would want to go?" Tia asked.

"Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do or die," Johnson replied.

"Why do you say that?" Tia asked as her ears laid back with wide eyes.

"That's my job. I am a soldier first. Always have been, always will be, and it is the only thing I ever will be," Johnson said, "Now, is there anything else? I really need to prepare for the job I have to do."

"No... Is there anything we can do to help you with your getting ready for your mission?"

"No, I don't need your help. Just point me in the direction of the hold, and I'll be fine," Johnson said.

"Here, I'll bring you there. Follow me," Sarah said as she started down the hallway to the right.

"Hua," Johnson said as he moved to follow.

"Huh?" Sarah asked. She cocked her head curiously, as she looked at Johnson.

"Hotel Uniform Alpha. Hua is a military acronym that means heard, understood, acknowledged," Johnson said as he walked beside Sarah. She nodded her head. They both walked along in silence until Sarah tapped Johnson on the shoulder.

"Eric, there is something I-" Sarah started to say before Johnson slammed his forearm into Sarah's throat and slammed her into the wall.

"Don't you EVER call me that! Be happy that I don't have a knife right now, or it would be halfway through your throat!" Johnson growled, his face just inches from Sarah's, "Do that again, and I will kill you. You are NOT authorized to know my name, nor do you have the privilege to call me by my first name!" Johnson stared straight into Sarah's eyes and saw the fear in them. Her ears were flat against her head and her tail had curled around her left leg. He then backed off and let go of Sarah. She crumpled to the floor and coughed as her airway became unobstructed. Johnson stayed back as she regained her breath.

"Do I make myself crystal clear?" Johnson growled as he glared at Sarah. She looked up at him, the fear in her eyes still very apparent.

"Y-Yes," She stuttered. Her ears pressed against her head, and her tail was wrapped tightly against her leg. The look she was giving Johnson made him hesitate for a second. He felt bad for a moment before he brushed off the emotion.

"Well, where is the stinkin' hold so I can get started with my mission?" Johnson asked.

"Th-this way," Sarah said as she picked herself back up. She looked at Johnson, and ducked her head down. Johnson just shook his head and continued following her. They proceeded to walk the rest of the way in silence. Eventually reach the hold and Sarah opens the door.

"H-here it is," Sarah said. Johnson just ignored her and went into the hold. He shut the door behind him. Johnson looked around and found a crate that was marked as United States Army property. Johnson opened the crate and found his weapons and ammo, along with a set of dragon scales armor and the equipment to hold the weapons and ammo. Buried in the bottom of the box was a small case. After he put on all of the armor and equipment, Johnson opened the case. In the case was a forty-five ACP pistol with ten magazines, and a letter. On the letter was 'Thought you would want this back, Steve Black.' Johnson took a closer look at the pistol and realized that it was the pistol his father gave him and with it was a laser sight that he received as a Christmas present. Johnson took the holster for the pistol and strapped it to his thigh. He placed all of the pistol's ammo in its appropriate place and slid the pistol into its holster. He then grabbed the rucksack from the case and placed the rifle, which he disassembled, into along with the ammo. He then noticed a second, large crate labeled as United States Army property. It was filled with MREs. He took a week's worth of rations and packed them into the ruck. After he packed everything back up, he exited the cargo hold. Outside he met Elizabeth.

"Warrant, did you really have to assault one of my crew?" she asked calmly.

"Listen, I don't like you. Any of you. I don't care if any of you dislike me. Just stay out of my way, and we can make the trip go as smoothly as possible. I am still an active duty Special Forces operative. I had full authorization to kill her if I needed to. That's the price that men like me have to pay. We do not exist. Anyone who knows who I am is a security risk. No one on board has authorization to know my full name-" Johnson stated.

"But that didn't stop you from telling Tia," Elizabeth interrupted.

"That was different. She saw me when I was critically wounded, and the cover story I made didn't match up with what she saw. She also didn't let up. I could have killed her, but a lot of eyebrows would have been raised if that had happened. She was just lucky, that is all," Johnson said while he glared at Elizabeth. Johnson then pushed past the seven foot blue dragoness, and started walking towards the room he was assigned. As Johnson walked back, a cadence started to run through his head. Johnson's stride slowly changed into a march.

"Ain't no use in looking back, Jody's got your Cadillac. Ain't no use in looking back, Jody's got your Cadillac. Ain't no use in looking blue, Jody's got your girlfriend too. Ain't no use in looking blue, Jody's got your girlfriend too. Ain't no use in feeling sad, Jody's got the job you had" Johnson softly sang out with a grin, "Ain't no use in feeling sad, Jody's got the job you had. Ain't no use in looking up, Jody's got you by the nuts. Ain't no use in looking up, Jody's got you by the nuts. Ain't no use in looking down, ain't no discharge on the ground. Ain't no use in looking down, ain't no discharge on the ground." Johnson thought back to his days in training and softly laughed as he remembered some of the more funny cadences he sang out when he ran or marched. He was about to start another one when he found that he couldn't talk. His pants also started to feel tight, and he started sweating slightly.

"Interesting song, care to explain it to me?" a voice asked seductively. Johnson stooped and turned to the source of the voice. A pantheress was leaning against an open door.

"Aw, soldier boy can't talk? Don't worry, your voice'll come back. The scent from my heat is blocking your ability to talk. You'll be fine, but now. How about a little fun, soldier boy?" the panther said seductively. Johnson threw half a glare her way and then bolted. He ran as fast as he could towards his room.

"Playing hard to get are, we?" the panther Jessica said, "I like it." She started running after Johnson. Johnson slide around the next corner and ran as fast as he could. The door to his room was just a few meters away. Johnson looked behind himself quickly and saw that Jessica, who it must have been as she was the only one who was in heat, catching up to him. Johnson ran as fast as he could. He got to the door and quickly opened it. He then shut it and locked it. He backed away for the door, and sat down on the bed to catch his breath. He then heard a knocking on the door.

"Come on, Soldier boy. Are you going to let a lady suffer like this?" the voice called out. Johnson tried to answer back, but he still couldn't talk.

"Come one Soldier boy, why don't you come out and have some fun?" Jessica asked. 'Over my dead body,' Johnson thought, as he looked around the room. He sighed and then opened up his rucksack. He then pulled out an MRE. It was a beef ravioli MRE. Johnson opened it up, took out the beef ravioli along with the MRE heater and a canteen that was in the ruck. He put the ravioli in the heater and poured a little bit of water into it. He then folded the top of the bag and let the ravioli heat. He checked to see what other treats came with the MRE, all the while he ignored the voice and the knocking coming from the door. He found a bag of Reese's pieces, a packet of crackers, a small bag of toaster pastries, and an electrolyte drink powder. He took the packet of crackers and opened it. He munched on the two extra large crackers as the ravioli heated up. After he finished the crackers he checked on the ravioli and found that it had finished. He carefully opened up a small side of the ravioli and pulled out the plastic spoon that came with the MRE. He started to mechanically eat the beef ravioli. After he finished with that, he continued to eat through the rest of the MRE. Johnson then proceeded with his usual light workout routine before he stripped and climbed under the covers of his bed, all the while he ignored the constant knocking and voice coming from the door. He then quickly fell asleep.

Fort Benning, Georgia, United States, January 30, 2004, 1400H (local)

Johnson marched toward his squad. They all wore grins on their faces as they patted each other on the back.

"Hooah, Rangers!" Johnson yelled as he approached the group. They group all cheered and welcomed Johnson into their little group.

"I can't believe it, we really did it! I still can't believe it," Johnson said.

"You always say that Johnson, you lone wolf. It's been what, six months now? You better get used to it," Corporal Steven Jefferson laughed. They each chatted for a while. They talked about the funny times and the hard times they had during Ranger School and the other training that they have done but they each were never prouder than that moment when they earned that tab.

"I wonder where we are going to be deployed," Johnson thought out loud.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Corporal. Wherever they send us, it'll be a cakewalk. At least when we compare it to what we went through," Sergeant Josh Morrison said as he patted Johnson on the back, "Anyway, our division is getting rotated to the Sandbox; however we, as in our platoon gets to go elsewhere. And before you ask, no I don't know where. Now come on, we have a job to do." Sergeant Morrison then turned around and started running towards one of the buildings nearby.

"Hooah!" yelled all of the rangers. They quickly picked up what they had set on the ground and ran after their squad leader. They got to the building and found the rest of their platoon already seated and waiting for them. In front were the PL and another man dressed in a black suit. 'Either CIA, FBI, NSA, or someone from Intel... This doesn't look like a regular brief... Something tells me that this will never happen...' Johnson thought as his squad all took their seats.

"Good day, Rangers!" the PL yelled.

"Good day, sir!" the entire platoon yelled back.

"Alright listen up; we got selected to go on a mission. I'll let Captain Haggar fill you in," the PL said as he walked off the stage. The man in the suit walked over to center stage.

"Ok, as you know I'm Captain Haggar. This mission is classified Top Secret. If you want to leave, leave now," he said, but smirked when no one got up to leave, "As I expected from Rangers," the whole room shouted "Hooah!" in response, "Now the mission is a simple smash and grab. We have valuable Intel on HVT, a Taliban Commander we all have wanted to nail for some time. You all know who it is, our King of Spades in Afghanistan. This Platoon has been chosen to insert into Taliban country, extract him by any means necessary, and bring him back for trial. Your squad leaders will fill you in on all of the details. Lieutenant, follow me please." Captain Haggar and the PL walked off the stage and the rest of us stood up. We all filed out of the building and without thought formed up into our squads. We all waited for a few minutes than the PL showed up.

"Squad Leaders, on me!" he yelled. Sergeant Morrison quickly jumped out of the little circle our squad had formed and ran towards the PL. Johnson looked at the three squad leaders standing with the PL and the Platoon Sergeant. After a several minutes of discussion, the squad leaders split up and ran back to their squads. Sergeant Morrison ran over to us.

"Alright horseshoe on me," he said. We all move to his front and the first 'row' took a knee. "Alright, our job in this mission is close security for the package. And before you say anything, yes we get to baby-sit a terrorist. Groan all you want to your girlfriend tonight. I will brief you all in detail on the plan ride there. Meet here tomorrow at 0300H. Dismissed," Sergeant Morrison said. They all looked at each other, and then went their separate ways. Johnson watched as he squad went to their vehicles and drove off to see their girlfriends or wives. Johnson sighed as he walked straight towards the barracks. He then started grabbing what equipment he thought he would need for the mission and preparing it for combat. After four hours of that, he lay on his bed and went to sleep.

In transit to Vega, April 13, 2009 (Human calendar), 0730H (local, Earth clock)

Johnson's eyes opened. He sat up and then got out of bed. He dressed in his usual ACU and put on the rest of the combat gear. 'Today is the day,' Johnson thought as he placed his helmet on his head. He stopped and placed his hand over his right shoulder, on the US flag patch there. He breathed in and then sighed. 'For as long as one man stands, this flag shall not fall,' Johnson thought as he remembered a poem he made so long ago. He shook off his nostalgia and walked to the door. He carefully unlocked it and opened the door. Sarah was standing there with her paw about to knock on the door. Her ears dropped as Johnson stood there staring into her eyes.

"Well?" Johnson said as he checked his gear, and slung his rifle.

"I...I was wondering if y-you were hungry," Sarah stuttered.

"Yes, I am, actually. Where is the mess?" Johnson asked. Sarah hesitated for a few seconds.

"Umm, I mean, uh, T-this way," Sarah said. She moved down the hallway and Johnson quickly followed. They moved silently through the hallways and eventually got to a closed door. Sarah pressed a pad near the door, and the door opened to a small dining room. Elizabeth and Tia were at the table eating a meal of some sort, while Jessica was missing. Johnson walked into the room. After looking around, Johnson didn't know where to get the food so he mentally shrugged, and sat down at the table while he pulled out a MRE to eat and setting his rifle off to his right. Without thinking, Johnson opened the MRE, pulled out the contents, started heating up the main course, opened up the rest of the packets, and started eating the crackers that were there. Sarah also sat down, but she had a bowl with what looked like cereal in it. The three Anthros at the table watched Johnson as he mechanically eat his MRE. After a few tense minutes, someone finally broke the silence by clearing her throat.

"So Warrant, how did you sleep?" Elizabeth asked.

"Fine," Johnson replied in between bites. He opened the main course, pulled out the plastic spoon that came with the MRE and started eating that.

"I want to apologize for Jessica's actions. Her heat has been really hard on her," Elizabeth said.

"Forget it," Johnson said as he continued eating the MRE.

"Are you sure you don't want, what is it that you soldiers say? A hot breakfast?" asked Tia.

"I'm fine. Besides, I prefer to have MREs," Johnson said as he continued to focus on his food.

"How about you tell us about yourself?" Elizabeth asked.

"Let's not and say we did," Johnson replied flatly as he finished up his MRE.

"Where did you grow up?" Elizabeth pressed.

"Fine. Fort Benning," Johnson replied.

"How was it? Did you make many friends?" Tia asked.

"The 0600H PT was annoying at first, but you get used to it. The Drill Sergeants were a pain but you learn to love them. Didn't make any friends, as I didn't want them. Airborne school was fun along with Ranger school, but Ranger school was tough. Selection was ok, but the MOS training was a blast. SERE was cool, but I've had more fun during Ranger school," Johnson said.

"Who were your parents?" Sarah asked with perked ears.

"Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty," Johnson replied with a grin.

"Why would your father be your uncle?" Tia asked with distaste.

"Uncle Sam is the nickname for the United States Government, and Lady Liberty is a fictional figurehead of freedom," Elizabeth stated, "I just remembered that Fort Benning is called by the US Army the 'Home of the Infantryman,' and Warrant here is an infantryman. He was telling us about his military career during training, not about himself."

"Yeah, she's right," Johnson said with a smirk, "And that's all you are going to get out of me. You all are not authorized to know my past. You can only know what you have seen, and even then you are not authorized to know that. Welcome to special operations, where everything you see, never happened."

"Well, why can't we know more about you, after all you are going to be living with us during your stay here," Tia said. Johnson eyes narrowed at that piece of information. 'What's Colonel Black trying to do?' Johnson thought.

"Well, you won't need to worry about me, I got a sleeping bag that's mighty good to sleep in," Johnson said, "Not only that but this mission should be over quickly, so a month of MREs should last me until the I get back to the States."

"No, you don't need to do that, we have a guest bedroom that you can use," Elizabeth said, "Besides, your Colonel Black told me that I 'shouldn't take no for an answer, as it wasn't a request.'" Johnson inaudibly growled at that. Johnson then took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"Alright, an order is an order," Johnson said, "I'll move my gear into that room, but I am required to demand that you announce yourself and wait for me to tell you to come in before opening the door to the room. I will be working in that room."

"Ok, we understand," Elizabeth said, "But please explain why you are so hesitant with us? I mean, I understand that you lost your team because we came at a bad time, but we didn't know. There was no way we could know. What happened that makes you distrust us so much?"

"That," Johnson said "is classified." He then stood up and left the room. He then walked around in the ship and just explored. He eventually stumbled upon a lounge like area. Johnson unslung his rifle and sat down on one of the chairs that were there and looked out the window. 'I always wondered what space was like, well here I am. It sure does look beautiful. I just wish my brothers could be here to see this...' Johnson thought with a sigh, 'Maybe I am being too hard on them, I mean they didn't know what was happening, but still... Dad, what should I do? I don't know what I should do... Why can't I live a normal life for once?' He continued to contemplate as he looked out the window until he saw a planet come into view. For a moment, he thought he was looking at Earth, but the he realized that the geological features were all wrong. The seas were in the wrong places along with the land. 'So that's Vega,' Johnson thought as he stood up and walked over to the viewing port. Johnson turned to look towards the door as it opened. Sarah walked in, but as soon as she saw Johnson her ears went flat against her head. She turned and started to leave.

"You have a beautiful planet," Johnson said. Sarah stopped and looked at Johnson.

"Th-thank you," Sarah said.

"It's times like now that I truly wish you hadn't found humanity. I wouldn't want to see a planet like this destroyed because of us," Johnson said as he turned and walked towards Sarah.

"What do you mean?" Sarah said.

"What I mean is that soon, this first contact with humanity will become the best thing that has happened to us humans, or it will be the worst decision that your kind has ever made," Johnson said as he looked straight into Sarah's eyes. Johnson then walked past her and went back to his room. He gathered everything he needed, all which was located in his ruck, grabbed his rifle, and walked back to the lounge area. He then walked in and saw Sarah sitting where he sat not so long before. She didn't notice him as she stared, lost in thought, out of the viewing port. Johnson stood there for a few seconds before making his decision. He walked behind her and set his ruck down with his rifle leaning on it. He then walked around and sat down by Sarah and looked out at the approaching planet.

"So what's our ETA?" Johnson asked. Sarah suddenly jumped and whipped her head around to look at Johnson. Johnson looked back at her with a smirk, "Do that a few more times and just a little faster, and you'll get whiplash."

"S-Sorry, you just scared me," she said.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt anyone. I've seen enough bloodshed in my time that I don't want any more," Johnson said, "and you thought that Ghost was just some nickname I just randomly picked."

"How did you get that nickname?" Sarah asked.

"You all need to seriously stop asking about my past. Either A, I don't want to tell you, or B, I can't tell you. Just stop asking about it. Alright?" Johnson said.

"Why don't you want to tell us? What can be so bad that you do whatever it takes to not talk about it?" Sarah asked, "I mean we are not asking about anything that relates to the military and yet you still insist on this secrecy. Why?" Sarah asked.

"Because you don't want to know. You truly don't want to," Johnson said, "If I ever do tell you, you'll understand why I never wanted to talk about it."

"Is it really so terrible that you want to bury it?" Sarah asked. Johnson just looked out the window as Vega drew ever closer. Johnson then closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

"I don't think you understand what it means to... to have nothing to lose," Johnson said. Sarah looked at Johnson, and her ears tilted backwards.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. Johnson just continued to stare out at the approaching Vega. The door to the lounge opened. Johnson looked over his shoulder at the noise and saw Elizabeth standing there. Elizabeth walked into the room and noticed Johnson sitting next to Sarah.

Before Elizabeth could say anything Johnson asked, "What's our ETA to land?"

She smiled and said, "We are almost ready to land at the space port, why do you ask?"

"Let the person in charge of landing know that I am required to be on the ground before any human is to be let out of the ship they landed on, and I am supposed to check them before they go through your security checks," Johnson said as he stood back up. He then grabbed his rifle, went into his ruck and grabbed his armor. Once he got his armor on, he then grabbed his equipment harness. After that, he picked up his ruck and got it settled. He then held his rifle in a low read position out of habit.

"Alright, but do you think you'll need that weapon?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Besides, its SOP that I am armed at all times," Johnson said.

"I understand. Just be careful," Elizabeth cautioned as she went through the door and walked off.

"Always am," Johnson said as he walked over to the viewport and watched the planet grow larger. Johnson then looked around to try to see how many ships he could see. He counted about five. He sighed as he started to think about how many inspections he would have to do. 'This is going to be a long mission,' he thought as he stood there.

Johnson's head then snapped up as he heard a beep, "Ghost, could you please come to the bridge. The controller wants to talk to you about your orders," Elizabeth's voice came over what Johnson wrote off to be an intercom system.

"I'll take you to the bridge," Sarah offered. Johnson turned to look at her, and her ears fell flat again. Then her gaze dropped. Johnson just shook his head at how insecure she was.

"Lead the way," Johnson said. Sarah's head snapped up and looked at Johnson quizzically.

"Well? Are you going to show me to the bridge, or am I going to have to find it on my own?" Johnson asked. The Sarah's ears perked and pointed straight at him. She then quickly stood up and opened the door.

"This way," she said as she walked through the open door. Johnson carried the rifle loosely as he walked behind her. The rifle never once pointed anywhere near her. He followed her for a few minutes and then Sarah opened a door and inside Johnson saw the bridge.

"Here we are," Sarah said as Elizabeth made eye contact with Johnson. Johnson quickly walked over to her. On the screen she was in front of was a female coyote.

"Are you Chief Warrant Officer Johnson, United States Army?" she asked.

"Yes," Johnson replied, "How fast can I get groundside so I can start my mission?"

"What exactly is your mission, Johnson?" the controller asked.

"That information is classified, you would know it already if you were supposed to. Now, how fast can I get to the AO?"

"AO? What's an AO?" the controller asked. Johnson smirked.

"AO stands for Area of Operation, the Space ports or whatever you call them is my AO, at least where all of the humans need to pass through. Now, how fast can I be there? Also, this is important, I need to be the first human to set foot on the ground."

"I still need to check with my superiors, and others ships have already been cleared to land-"

"LISTEN, THAT LAST PART WASN'T A REQUEST!" Johnson yelled, "Call off those ships landing NOW! You have no idea how much-" Johnson stopped before he said too much, and then turned to Elizabeth.

"I need to get groundside, now! Also, if you can't tell, I'm not requesting this. I'm ordering it."

"I'll take you to the Spaceport in our shuttle. We'll land as soon as we are cleared," Elizabeth said. Johnson nodded and followed her to the shuttle bay. When he saw the shuttles, he could have sworn that he stepped into Star Trek with the look of the shuttles. He quickly dismissed the thought and got in.

"Once you're strapped in, we'll launch," Elizabeth said. Johnson quickly front-loaded his rucksack, set his rifle next to him, and sat down in the co-pilot's chair.

"Hit it," Johnson said as he figured out how to strap himself to the chair. Elizabeth giggled as the shuttle took off and flew towards the Spaceport. The flight to Spaceport was made in complete silence. For Elizabeth, it was awkward, but to Johnson, it was normal. Johnson mentally prepared himself for combat. He first went over his orders in his head. Then he recited the creeds by which he lives, and the oaths that he swore. He felt his resolve strengthening, flashes of past battles flew through his mind and the heroics during them. Johnson was jolted out of his mental preparations as the shuttle settled down. Johnson quickly unstrapped himself from the chair, grabbed his weapon and made his way out of the craft. As he did so, Johnson quickly back-loaded his ruck. When he got to the surface of Vega, the first thing he did was sweep the area he was at.

There were multiple Anthros staring at him, most likely because they had never seen a human before, nor one armed and ready to fight like Johnson was. A feline ran up to Johnson. The feline looked like a Tabby and was dressed in what Johnson guessed was a security guard uniform.

"Are you Chief Warrant Officer Johnson?" she asked. Johnson lowered his weapon and nodded.

"I'm Johnson, call me Ghost though," he answered.

"My name is Tammy, I'm with security here at the Spaceport. I was told that you were going to check over our security here, is that correct?" She said.

"Yes, however I need to check the ships that have landed. I can't tell you why, so you are just going to need to follow my orders. Am I clear?" Johnson asked.

"I was told to help you were ever I can, so if you'll follow me I can take you to where a few ships have landed," she said as she turned around and walked towards a door. Johnson followed quickly.

"Where is your sidearm?" Johnson asked as they were walking.

"Why would I need a sidearm?" Tammy replied, genuinely shocked at the question.

"Just hope you don't need one," Johnson replied.

"Why is something the matter?" she asked. Johnson just remained silent after that. 'If things get ugly, I'm on my own...' he thought as he checked to see if his rifle had a round in the chamber.

Johnson followed the female feline with his weapon at the low ready position as she led him to one of the craft that had recently landed. He came across one human male standing in a crowd of a tall white wolf, a green dragoness, and a fennec vixen. The hanger seemed a lot like the ones back in the US, but a little more futuristic. There were also some benches scattered around the place.

"Hold it. Has this group been checked?" Johnson asked.

"I don't think so," she replied.

"Alright, I'll do the check on the human, you can check the Anthros," Johnson said as he moved to approach the group as he moved his weapon into a less threatening position. He moved up to the group.

"Excuse me, sir. I need to check you and your gear before you will be allowed to go," Johnson said calmly, but with a tone that said that this is not a request.

"Uh, ok," the man said hesitantly.

"Over this way, sir," Johnson said in the same tone. The man turned around and kissed all three of the ladies around him and then Johnson lead the man out of sight and ear shot of the Anthros. Johnson then slung his rifle and pulled out his pistol. He then swiftly attached a silencer to the pistol and aimed it at the man.

"Strip," Johnson ordered.

"What?!" the man said loudly in shock.

"I said strip. Now!" Johnson ordered.

"Bu-" the man said before he was interrupted by Johnson.

"Do as I say, or I'll shoot you," Johnson said calmly, "If everything checks out, I might explain why I am doing this. Now strip!"

"Ok, ok!" the man said as he started stripping of the clothes as quickly as possible. After the last article of clothing hit the floor, Johnson nodded.

"Alright, now slide the clothing towards me, and keep your hands where I can see them," the man complied, "You don't have anything sharp or something illegal to possess in the US in these clothes?" The man shook his head. Johnson quickly checked the clothing with one hand while he kept the other, with the pistol, trained on the man. The sweep came back clean, save for the man's wallet.

"Alright," Johnson said as he slid the clothes back to the man, "I'm sorry about having to do this, but the situation requires it. Show me everything that you brought here. Everything. From your Grandma's favorite thimble to the freakin' kitchen sink."

"Okay, I've got nothing to hide. Why are you doing this anyway?" the man asked as he quickly redressed.

"Once I've cleared you, I'll tell you as much as I can," Johnson said as they both walked back to the ship the man arrived in. Johnson holstered his pistol as they came back in view of the ladies, but kept his hand near the pistol. The man moved towards the ladies and said a few things to them, then kissed each of them again. He and Johnson then moved into the ship and eventually made it to where the cargo hold is.

"Alright, this is everything?" Johnson asked. When he saw the man nod, he pulled out a zip-tie and said, "Turn around, hands behind your back." Again the man complied and Johnson zip-tied his hands, palms outwards, together. Johnson then thoroughly checked every item in the cargo hold thoroughly. Johnson then nodded to himself and walked over to the man.

"Alright, you check out. Call me Ghost, I'm US Special Forces" Johnson said as he pulled out his knife and unlocked the zip-ties. He then helped the man to his feet. "Again, sorry I had to do all of this. There was Intel that some not-so-friendly humans decided to 'see the sights' as it were. I need you to keep an eye out for me, okay? If you see something suspicious, contact me, and I'll take care of it." The man nodded and held out his hand.

"My name's Steve, nice to meet you," he said. Johnson shook his hand and then nodded towards the door.

"One thing, don't tell ANYONE, and I do mean anyone especially any Anthros, what I told you. We don't want to scare our new-found friends off because not every human is going to like the idea of world peace," Johnson said. Steve looked like he was about to say something but Johnson continued, "I want to turn this equipment in permanently, but until I can confidently set this gear down and say that no one will ever need it again, I will continue to do this job. As a civilian, I don't expect you to understand."

Johnson looked him straight in the eye. Steve saw the scars that Johnson had accumulated as a soldier; the horror that those eyes had seen, the fear that those eyes had faced, the loss that those eyes had suffered, the resignation those eyes had felt, and suddenly Johnson looked decades older than he had before. The look in Johnson's eyes told Steve that Johnson had really gone to hell and back for the citizens of the United States and not once had been seen by the public as anything more than another soldier, or in the eyes of those who don't really understand, a murderer. Those eyes told Steve that, in front of him was a man who had given everything that he could give, and was more than willing to give even more, to those who would spit in his face and piss on his grave.

"I think I understand," Steve said. He then started to walk out of the room but stopped at the door and turned to face Johnson, and looked him straight in the eye, "Thank you, Ghost. For everything, and especially for watching our backs during these times, where others think that you are worth less than dirt." He then turned back around and started to walk away before a hand was placed on his shoulder to stop his movement.

"As a civilian, you will never know," Johnson said "how much those words mean, to someone like me. Thank you." He then dropped his arm and they both walked off. As they walked, Johnson thought back to what Tom had said. As he thought about it, he felt his weary, beaten, scared, and beleaguered soul be healed and lifted by those words. For once in what felt like decades, Johnson felt happy, truly happy. Johnson then noticed that he held himself a bit straighter, his step had a little more pride in it, and he felt a radiance around him that hinted at pride. Johnson for once in twelve years actually felt, although not completely but, a bit more at peace with everything that has happened to him. 'Steve will never understand just how grateful I am for those words, nor will he ever understand how much they have helped me,' Johnson thought as they walked down the ramp, 'I can tell that he didn't have an easy life, and that he took the time to do ever that little thing makes it mean even more. I'll watch your back Steve, I'll make sure that nothing like this will ever have to spill over to you-' Steve then walked over and kissed the three Anthro females that were a part of his original group, and he caressed the fennec vixen's stomach. When Johnson saw that, he smirked, 'or your family and friends. Whether I like them or not, the little amount of respect that they have with me just increased. May God watch over, bless, and protect you while I can't protect you, and may He watch over and protect me while I can.' Johnson then walked over to the Security officer.

"Alright they're clear. Let's go, we hav-" Johnson said before he saw another human, but this one had something in his hand that immediately put Johnson at the alert. Johnson's eyes widened when he realized what the item was. His silenced pistol somehow found its way into his hands and aimed at the man.

"Hey! Hey you! Drop it now!" Johnson yelled. He then looked at Tom and his group, "Get to cover! Now!" Johnson then turned his attention back onto the individual.

The man looked up when Johnson shouted and saw Johnson. The man started to chant something that Johnson's ears struggled to hear, but Johnson was able to hear one thing very clearly, "Allah Akbar." The man then ran at Johnson and closed the meager distance between the two combatants. Johnson didn't even think as his training kicked in and sent two bullets screaming down range. Both rounds found purchase in the man's chest, but he was able to shrug them off, barely. Johnson's aim then shifted higher and he fired once. The forty-five ACP bullet passed through the man's head and out the back of his skull, with a lot of brain and blood with it. The man's hand jerked and the item in the man's hand beeped. The man then exploded and sent blood, bone fragments, and shrapnel everywhere. Johnson and Tammy were thrown back by the force of the blast, while Steve and his group were thrown from their feet. Johnson felt the bites of pain as fragments found purchase in his body. His armor was able to stop anything from hitting his chest, but his arms and legs felt hundreds if not thousands of hits.

Johnson was not able to stop the scream of pain that came from him, but he was able to throw the shock of the explosion off. The first thought was to get medical attention for those wounded in his squad, then the second was to treat the civilians that were in the area. He looked to his right and saw that Tammy was down and bleeding from several places. He tried to get up, but the pain of his wounds forced him to low crawl over to her. He reached her and looked for a field dressing. He then remembered that she was a civilian Security officer and that they didn't carry field dressings. The ringing in his ears from the explosion still hadn't died down at all.

"Tammy, are you okay?" Johnson yelled as he started checking her for wounds. When Tammy didn't respond, he checked her breathing. She was breathing, so Johnson then took his own dressing and applied it to the worst wound he could find. Johnson then grabbed her radio and activated it.

"This is Ghost, officer down. I repeat officer down! We need EMTs in bay tree-tree, repeat EMTs needed in bay tree-tree. We got hit by a suicide bomber. I am also badly hit, but I am still mobile. Barely. There are civilians in the bay, I'm checking them now," Johnson yelled into the radio as he crawled towards Steve and his group. The radio replied that help was on the way as Johnson crawled as fast as he could towards Steve's lat known location. When he got there, he saw that they were fine. Steve had moved them to cover before the bomber killed himself. Johnson let out a soft sigh of relief.

"This is Ghost, we have no civilian casualties. They all are a-okay. Where are those EMTs?" Johnson yelled as he crawled back towards the fallen form of Tammy. The ringing in his ears started to die down, but very slowly.

"Ghost, is there anything we can do?" Steve asked as he ran over to Johnson's prone form.

"I need every sterile bandage you can get your hands on, now!" Johnson ordered. He heard four sets of feet start running towards the ship. Johnson then started to catalogue the wounds that he received. Most were minor, but when Johnson started to pull out some of the shrapnel in him just to find out that it was bone fragments. 'Great, AIDS tests for everyone,' Johnson thought as he chuckled grimly and tossed away the bone fragments he pulled out of himself. Someone from the group came back.

"Here, take this," a female voice from behind said. Johnson looked behind him and saw white furred legs. He then looked up at the tallest woman that Johnson had ever seen. She looked a lot like an arctic wolf from Earth, but was a good seven plus feet. In her hands was what looked like a medical kit, Johnson reached over and pushed it back.

"You know how to use that stuff better than me, start treating her wounds," Johnson said as he pointed towards Tammy, "If you have any spare pieces of gauss leftover, then give it to me. Until then use it all on her. She is more wounded than I am."

"But-" she said before Johnson interrupted.

"Don't argue. I've been hit worse than this. These wounds burn, but they are not incapacitating. Get to work," Johnson ordered as he tried to force himself back to his feet. He was able to get onto his hands and knees, but not any further. The white wolf than moved over and started to treat the fallen security officer. Johnson reached over to a nearby bench and tried to push himself back to his feet. His legs were unable to support his weight, so he pulled himself into a sitting position on the bench. He looked around for his pistol and saw it some distance away. He then reached back for his rifle, checked it quickly, and started to cover the area as the arctic wolf treated Tammy's wounds.

Johnson activated Tammy's radio again, "Hey, where are our reinforcements? I currently have civilians treating the injured here!"

"They are going to be there in ninety seconds, hold on," dispatch replied.

"Tell them to get the tails over here. If an EMT doesn't get to the downed officer soon, she's not going to make it. I'm currently covering the area, but I myself am wounded. I'll also need so patching up. Note for the EMTs, I pulled out a few fragments from the bomber. We need to get some medical tests done on both of us," Johnson replied as he continued to scan the area. Tom and the rest of his group came on the situation. Steve pointed over to Tammy, and the dragoness ran to her as he and the vixen ran towards him.

"Just started slapping on bandages, let the EMTs worry about everything else. Also, if you can, pull out and pieces of shrapnel or bone fragments you can. Don't worry about the increased bleeding, I can take it," Johnson said loudly as the ringing in his ears died down to a more tolerable level. Steve nodded and started to bind the wounds that he could.

"I guess we owe you one," Steve said. Johnson scoffed at that.

"Just doing my job," Johnson said, "Besides, I get paid to do this kind of crap."

"Yeah, now hold still, this may hurt," the vixen said as she pulled out a shard of shrapnel that was firmly stuck in Johnson's right leg. Johnson held back the cry of pain as a four-inch-long piece of shrapnel was pulled out of his leg. He scanned the area as they quickly bandaged him up.

"That last one, put a pressure bandage on it," Johnson said through gritted teeth. Johnson then saw movement out of the corner of his eye. His rifle snapped up and Johnson looked through the 4X scope and saw the uniform of the Anthro's security corp. Johnson lowered his rifle.

"Friendlies moving up! Check your fire!" Johnson called out, out of habit as the security officers moved to help secure the area. The way the officers moved told Johnson that these Anthros had never seen combat before. Johnson saw the EMT rush to both him and Tammy. As a feline EMT ran up to him, Johnson waved her off.

"I'm not the incapacitated one. Help her," Johnson said as he pointed to Tammy.

"She is being taken care o-" the EMT said before Johnson interrupted.

"Yeah, but she is in worse condition than I am. With these two helping me, I'll be fine. She is the one how needs help!" Johnson said as he glared at the EMT. The EMT looked at Johnson before her ears went flat against her head. She then ducked away and moved over to Tammy. Johnson let out a soft groan of pain as another long piece of shrapnel was pulled from him. Johnson constantly swept the area with his eyes and rifle as the EMTs worked. Eventually they brought in a stretcher and got Tammy onto it. Johnson looked at Tom and the vixen that were treating his wounds. They had just pulled the last piece of foreign material from his body and put a pressure bandage on it.

"Alright, thanks for the patch up. You can go now," Johnson said as he pushed himself to his feet and grunted in pain because of it.

"Are you sure you should be on your feet?" the vixen asked.

"I'm fine, besides on the battlefield, pain is your friend. It tells you, you're alive. And this is nothing compared to what I've received before," Johnson said as he tried to walk over to Tammy's side without a limp, which he failed horribly. When he got there, the teams was about to leave.

"How is she, doc?" Johnson asked as he looked at the fresh bloodstains all of the bandages had already acquired.

"She'll be fine. You were right, if we got here much later, she wouldn't have made it," one of the EMTs said before she turned around. Her face had a shocked look to it as she took in Johnson's condition, "How are you still on your feet?"

"Trust me, this is just another day at the office for me. Get moving, I'll stop by medical after I clear the area. Move," Johnson said as he turned around and limped over to where his pistol was laying. He grabbed the weapon and holstered it before he swept the area. The EMT's with Tammy had left and were already out of site. Steve and his group walked over to Johnson as he finished his sweep of the area.

"What was that?" the dragoness asked. Johnson looked her over quickly. She was about seven foot and was like Elizabeth but with green coloring instead of blue. Everyone was looking at Johnson for an answer, and he sighed as he decided what he could tell them and what he couldn't.

"That, was terrorism's best weapon. The suicide bomber. This mission just got a lot more interesting," Johnson said, acting nonchalant, he then limped off towards the security office that he set off from and said, "I need to contact my superiors about this. Something tells me that they're not going to be happy." Johnson moved as fast as he could towards the Security office.

When he got there, the first thing that happened was the Director of Security got into his face.

"What just happened?!" the vixen yelled as she glared at Johnson.

"A suicide bomber, that's what," Johnson said as he pushed her out of his way, "Someone, get me a direct line to the White House, top priority! My superiors need to be informed."

"You still haven't answered me!" the director shouted. Johnson turned around and glared at her. The sounds in the office died as he did that.

"As of now, anyone in the field will report directly to me. As far as any field operation goes, I'm in charge. We are now continuing a war that you tried to stop and failed. Now until I get in contact with my superiors, stop any incoming ship. I don't care what you tell them, but they cannot touchdown. Make no mistake ladies, that explosion was a declaration of war. Welcome back to the mud, the blood, the guts, and the gore," Johnson said calmly. He then walked further into the office. A female feline walked over to Johnson and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sir, Washington is ready to speak with you," she said. He nodded and followed her into a room. The room was a simple bland grey room with a large screen at one end. On it was a woman that had the look of some White House secretary.

"I need everyone here to leave; first, make sure this line is secure and encrypted. After that leave," Johnson said. A few of the Anthros looked curious as to why Johnson would make sure a demand, but one glare from Johnson made them all snap to. After they finished they all quickly left the room.

"Sir? What is going on?" the secretary asked.

"This is Ghost, I need to speak to Nomad about Operation Dark Lightening," Johnson said quickly. The secretary's eyes widened slightly.

"One moment sir," she said before she pressed a few buttons and the line changed to a blue screen with the symbol of the President on it. The screen then changed to a dark room, with Colonel Black standing in the middle of the screen.

"What has you contacting us so soon, Warrant? It isn't your orders, is it? Oh my, Warrant what happened? Are you alright?" Colonel Black asked.

"Yes, sir," Johnson replied with a salute, and Colonel Black returned it, "We have had a hard contact here. The threat has been eliminated, but after the terrorist suicide-bombed a landing bay. There were only two casualties, and we're both expected to make full recoveries, sir. The other casualty was a security officer that was escorting me throughout the 'port. She is currently at the hospital being treated. I've refused treatment so that I could report this incident. What do you want me to do now, sir? The Anthros know that it was a terroristic attack that was barely foiled."

The Colonel sighed, "They moved faster than we expected. It was a good thing you arrived when you did. Alright, I will pass this up the chain of command. I will inform you of what your orders will be tomorrow. I will contact Elizabeth's house with them when I get them. Recover fast, Johnson. We need you at the top of your game for this one. This mission has just begun and it already has gone south..." The line went dead after that. Johnson walked out of the room. The Anthros that had vacated the room when he was talking to the Colonel looked at him. When he nodded to their unasked question, they slowly started to go back into the room. Johnson then left the Security office and just as he did so, he bumped into Sarah.

"H-hey, do you know what all of the excitement is about?" she asked.

"There was a terrorist attack," Johnson said, "I'm waiting for new orders, so I guess I'll need to head to where I'm staying and try and heal up as fast as I can. This mission just got interesting." Sarah was obviously shocked at the information. After a few seconds of her just staring at him, Johnson tapped her a few times on the shoulder.

"Hey? You still with me," he said as he snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times. Sarah then shook her head a few times.

"Here, I'll take you to where we are living. This way," she said as she walked off. Johnson walked after her.

-End Part 1-