One month later

Five miles from the U.S. military outpost RECON, a small Afghan town which had formerly been a Taliban stronghold was now like a bustling urban area. The civilians who’d evacuated a year ago had returned and the typical urban activity of the town was being restored. For the safety of the town, RECON’s chief, General Robert McCoy had issued patrol units from Units Comet and Eagle to patrol the town premises and assist in restorative services to the town.

This morning, Unit Comet was the main force patrolling the streets with a number of the soldiers also performing some restorative services. A military convoy had arrived early that morning carrying some food supplies for a supermarket towards the town center. Private Kay Nicola rode on the back of one of the carrier trucks and got to the back to start unloading as the truck pulled up next to the store. Sergeant Mary Sampson and Private Penny Willow were there to help unload some crates carrying some of the supplies on board. Penny hopped on board and helped Kay carry a crate to the edge of the truck where Mary grabbed it from below and helped Kay bring it to the ground level.

“Careful, careful,” Mary said as she and Kay brought the crate from the truck to the receiving section of the building.

After bringing the crate over to the nearest receiving door, they were greeted by the store owner, a gentle natured man with glasses, a small beard and some wrapping around his head. Mary and Kay grabbed two crowbars and went to work prying open the crate lid. After pushing off the lid, all three soldiers helped the store owner carry the smaller cardboard boxes of supplies into the storage section at the back of the store.

At another end of the town, Privates Natalia Williams and Anne Ricardo were with a couple children watching them play hopscotch and a few other streetside games. One of the girls, who appeared to be six or so, ran over to Natalia and, with translation from her father, asked her if she’d be willing to try a little hopscotch. Accepting it without second thought, Natalia laid her rifle to the side and walked over to the drawn out squares in the street. The squares were laid out in a 1 - - 1 - 1 - 2 -1 - 2 - 1 pattern, making it look quite challenging. Rubbing her hands together, Natalia quickly hopped across each square, landing smoothly in each one and holding out her hands to balance herself. She made it to the other end with no trouble at all.

“Hey Anne,” Natalia called out, “Why don’t you try some hopscotch.”

“No, I suck at it,” Anne said, adding a sheepish smile, “You keep going.”

“Come on, you’ll do fine,” Natalia encouraged.

“Oh alright,” Anne said, but added a somewhat daring look.

This time, Anne started a few paces back, giving herself a running start before hopping along each square. She did reasonably well, but her feet landed barely outside one or two squares, and she stumbled along the last square, but made it through.

“See, what’d I tell you?” Natalia said, nudging her playfully.

“That’s actually really fun,” Anne said, her eyes shining with excitement, “I should do that again.”

Keeping to her response, Anne went back across the squares, doing a much better job than before.

Towards the center of the town, where the urban activity seemed the highest, Privates Natalie and Linda were patrolling the streets, conversing with each other as they walked.

“Can you believe that this place used to be a battlefield?” Linda was asking as they reached a corner, “Three months ago, this place was virtually wrecked, there was machine gun fire, explosions, and basically h***.”

“I must say this isn’t what I pictured this town to be like previously,” Natalie said as they crossed, “I always pictured towns like this as being a little more quiet. It seems almost like one of those urban communities near a major city back home.”

“Absolutely,” Linda said, “The thing that bugs me is are the Taliban going to come back?”

“I’ve no idea,” Natalie said, “One hopes that a unit like us is enough to scare off a loosely organized militia like the Taliban.”

“Say, Natalie,” Linda asked, “Did you get anything from your family recently?”

“Like a letter?” Natalie replied, “I think so. It was from my boyfriend. Said he’d seen our victory on the news and wanted to personally congratulate me.”

“You have a boyfriend?” Linda said, eyeing her with slyness, “What’s his name.”

Natalie was just about to say, but right at that moment, a wave of heat threw both girls forward as one of the nearby corner stores went up in flames. Because they’d been knocked off their feet early, they just barely avoided a spray of glass and shrapnel that went flying through the air, although the sudden heat blast and the force of impact as the girls hit the ground was enough to briefly knock the lights out.

It was nightmarish at that point. Second Lieutenant Hailey Rincoln wandered along the crossroads near where the explosion had occurred. Smoke still wafted through the area as local volunteer firefighters threw water on the blaze. Privates Kay, Anna, and Jacey were helping escort civilians away from the blast zone while army medics and local doctors worked to help any civilians who were injured from the blast.

“Lieutenant!” someone called, and Hailey turned to see Combat Casualties Officer Lisa Marilyn waving to her. Hailey ran over, seeing Lisa next to a subconscious Natalie, who’d been gently propped against a wall.

“Lieutenant, she’s coming around,” Lisa said as Natalie groaned a bit before opening her eyes slightly.

“You okay?” Hailey asked, pushing some of Natalie’s hair gently aside.

“Yeah,” Natalie replied weakly, “How’s Linda?”

Hailey looked to her right, where medics were laying an unconscious Linda on a stretcher. Linda was badly bruised and some cuts scattered her face but she seemed otherwise okay.

“She’ll be alright,” Hailey said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

“I should be getting back on patrol,” Natalie wheezed, trying to stand up, but Hailey gently laid her back against the wall.

“Stay where you are, Private,” Hailey prompted, “We’ll get someone to replace your shift.” Then turning to Lisa added, “Lisa, make sure Natalie and Linda get to the RECON Medical Center right away.”

“Ma’am,” Lisa acknowledged, saluting and helping Natalie to her feet.

Turning back toward the street, Hailey called out “Alright, everybody, clear the street, there’s nothing to see here.”

As she helped prod civilians away from the area, a gruff bearded civilian, the owner of the corner store where the explosion had taken place, approached Hailey and asked roughly “What the h*** happened here?”

“There was an explosion,” Hailey replied plainly, “Three deaths were reported, and two of our soldiers along with five other civilians were seriously injured.”

“Do you have any idea how much it’ll cost me to repair my shop?” the owner demanded.

“No, and I’m not interested,” Hailey said, trying to keep her patience, “Now please get off the street so we can continue with our job.”

“Your job?” The owner protested, “Your job is to be ensuring the stability of this area and carrying out repairs as needed.”

Hailey had just about had it with this guy. She grabbed him by the collar and held him close, speaking threateningly to him.

“Don’t tell me how I’m supposed to do my job,” Hailey snarled, “Now I won’t tell you again, get off the street or I’ll have you removed by force.”

Hailey shoved him off just as Sergeant Trisha came out from behind the door of the wrecked corner store.

“Lieutenant! I think should see this,” Trisha called, and Hailey jogged over to the wreckage.

“What’d you find Sarge?” Hailey asked.

“I found this,” Trisha said, holding in some salvaged cloth the remains of what appeared to be a pipe bomb, “It was well placed beneath the building’s water heater.”

“Well, that implies the explosion may have been intentional,” Hailey presumed.

“It would seem so,” Trisha said, “I also found very small scattered traces of glass and other mechanisms, implying that this explosive was more than likely on a timer.”

“So either this was a large scale sabotage attempt on the store….” Hailey said.

“Or we’re dealing with possible insurgents,” Trisha finished, “And I think I can guess who they’re affiliated with.”

Hailey didn’t need to reply; she already knew the answer. It seemed as though the Taliban were back, and would use every means necessary to regain control of the town where they’d previously set up a stronghold.

Lieutenant Jessica had never walked so quickly in her life. In fact, she was technically jogging as she headed through the corridors of RECON on her way to see General Robert McCoy. She’d just heard about the bomb in the corner store and was anxious to get to the bottom of the matter and prepare for the long-term aftermath. Also, she and the other highest ranked officers of the units at RECON had been called to a mandatory meeting with General McCoy in response to the bombing. She passed Lisa and Betty, each of which were accompanied by doctors who were helping push Linda and Natalie on medical beds to the operation rooms.

“How are they?” Jessica said, trying to keep a calm tone.

“Bruised and in varying states of subconsciousness,” Lisa replied, “But they should be back in action within a few days. They thankfully avoided any shrapnel when the bomb went off, so that makes our job and their recovery a heck of alot easier.”

“Alright, carry on,” Jessica said, saluting her off and continuing on her original course to General McCoy’s office.

As she continued to jog along, she narrowly avoided brushing the shoulder of another soldier. Then Jessica stopped briefly, looking back. Although the soldier had her back turned to her, Jessica could just make out traces of short cut hair protruding from under her cap. Jessica thought she recognized the soldier, but didn’t have time to approach her, knowing that she had a more important task at hand.

She arrived at General McCoy’s office a few minutes later, saluting as she came in.

“Alright,” General McCoy said in a very formal voice, “Now that everyone’s here, let’s get started. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the bombing in the nearby town that was previously a Taliban stronghold, correct?”

Everybody including Jessica nodded.

“According to intelligence passed over by Second Lieutenant Rincoln, the lead first responder on site,” McCoy continued, “They found traces of what appeared to be a pipe bomb in the basement level of the store.”

He showed some intel pictures of the remains of a pipe bomb as well as that of the wrecked corner store, and Jessica’s eyes widened a bit as she saw just how gutted the building was.

“It is her assumption, and mine, that the Taliban are attempting some form of comeback on the town, either by means of sabotage or direct attack. It may also be possible that they’re going to rebuild the stronghold if they regain control of that town. Under absolutely no circumstances will we let that happen. Therefore, I’ve called you all here to notify you of a change in the daily routines of the soldiers here at RECON. Until we’re sure that the Taliban are no longer a tangible threat to the town, and by extension this whole area, I’m going to have increased patrol routines added to all your unit’s schedules. This may include that your units will be in the town half the day or even the whole day depending on circumstances. Any questions?”

Jessica raised her hand.

“Lieutenant Allison,” McCoy acknowledged.

“Have there been reports of possible enemy encampments set up around the area?” Jessica asked.

“As of yet, no,” McCoy replied, “From what we know, this attack may have been the work of a single saboteur hiding among the civilians and not a coordinated group attack. But I’ll talk with the Pentagon and see if we can get some air support to help us locate any enemy campsites. Any other questions?”

The other officers remained motionless.

“Very well. Dismissed,” McCoy said, saluting them off.

As Jessica turned to leave, McCoy added, “Lieutenant, I’d like you to stay behind awhile.”

Reversing her direction, Jessica approached McCoy’s desk. At this, McCoy opened up his desk drawer and took out a rather large white envelope.

“I have something here from the Pentagon,” McCoy said, but then with a confused face, added “Oh dear me, though. This must’ve been sent to the wrong person. This is for a Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Allison.”

Jessica’s mouth opened and her eyes flooded with tears of happiness; she’d just been promoted from First Lieutenant all the way to Lieutenant Colonel. McCoy took out the letter and read a section of it.

“For strong sense of bravery, integrity, and a leader to victory, we hereby notify you, General Robert McCoy, that First Lieutenant Jessica Alison of Unit Comet has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.”

McCoy handed her the remainder of the envelope. In addition to the letter, there was a light gray armband with a black “Lieutenant Colonel” insignia sewn on it.

“Here, let me do the honors,” McCoy said as Jessica took it out of the envelope.

Jessica remained firm but was still blushing with excitement as McCoy gently wound the armband around her left shoulder and fastened it together.

After this was done, McCoy added, “I felt you should also know, Ms. Alison, that because of your victory, it seems we’ve got some more recruits for Unit Comet. One of them transferred recently from Colorado and she says she knows you.”

Jessica’s eyebrows raised a bit at this. At this, McCoy pressed a button on his phone, asking “Send Master Sergeant Kellerman in please.”

“Master Sergeant Kellerman?” The name sounded familiar, but Jessica still struggled to figure out who exactly that was. Then a thought came to her; she remembered a comrade of hers from Camp Angel Hills Boot Camp in Colorado; Jackie Kellerman.

“But she was just a cadet like the rest of us back then,” Jessica thought, “And yet, it’s been several years since then, and I’m now a Lieutenant Colonel, so then the whole works.”

She then heard McCoy’s office door open, and Jessica turned around to see the same soldier she’d passed earlier on the way to the office. And it definitely was “Cadet” Jackie Kellerman. Jessica recognized the sharp eyes and the jet-black hair cut to almost masculine length. Jackie saluted, but added a sly smile upon making eye contact with Jessica.

“Hey, Jessie,”Jackie said.

“Jackie,” Jessica replied with her own sly smile.

“I hope you still remember our secret handshake,” Jackie said, approaching her.

“Remember it?” Jessica replied, “I could do it blindfolded.”

The two clapped each other’s hands together, reversed and hit the back of each other’s palms before nudging each other’s sides with a playful grunt.

“So you’ve decided to join the club, have you?” Jessica asked, her eyes shining.

“After hearing about that victory of yours?” Jackie returned, “And after all those allegiances that we made in boot camp, I knew I had to come join.”

“And you’re a Master Sergeant now,” Jessica added, “How awesome.”

“Not only that,” Jackie said, “I’m also a qualified drill instructor for Angel Hills. And you’re a First Lieutenant now, commanding your own unit.”

“Not anymore,” General McCoy politely contradicted, “She just received a promotion from the Pentagon to Lieutenant Colonel.”

“What!?” Jackie exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement, “You rock, Jesse,” adding a firm handshake.

Jessica showed her newly added Lieutenant Colonel armband to prove McCoy’s point.

“A Lieutenant Colonel,” Jackie said, eyeing her competitively, “Damn, I envy you.”

“Well, you as a Master Sergeant,” Jessica returned, “I never expected that.”

“Hey, it’s been three years since then,” Jackie countered playfully, “Come on, I want to see some more of this Unit Comet you hold command of.”

“Absolutely,” Jessica said, then turning to McCoy, “Request permission for dismissal.”

“Permission granted,” McCoy said, saluting, “Make sure you notify Unit Comet at warm ups tomorrow about the schedule change.”

“Yes sir,” Jessica replied and left with Jackie in tow.

The two wandered around the premises for a while, with Jessica giving Jackie a tour of certain facilities. On the way through a corridor, they passed Sergeant Trisha, whom Jessica introduced Jackie to.

“You both went to the same boot camp together?” Trisha said, “Wow. How tough was it there.”

“Probably the toughest fun I ever had,” Jackie said.

“The Master Sergeant here is also a drill instructor at the camp now,” Jessica said, then turning to Jackie, added, “And you’re on temporary leave to be here right.”

“I’m here to serve in the unit, registered and everything,” Jackie said confidently, “Don’t even think of dismissing me without proper grounds.”

“You certainly have the aggressiveness of a drill instructor,” Trisha remarked.

“Do you know how many times I’ve had to yell in soldier’s face?” Jackie asked, and Trisha shook her head.

“At least twenty-three times each month,” Jackie answered, although she was somewhat exaggerating, and Trisha’s eyes widened and she gulped playfully.

“I’d better not underestimate you then,” she replied.

“It may be the last thing you do,” Jessica replied, “Carry on, Sarge.”

Next was the Medical Center, where Jackie was introduced to Lisa and Medical Officer Betty.

“Lisa has probably the most unmatched medical skills in the military,” Jessica said, “We had soldier almost critically injured on the battlefield once from a mortar, and Lisa was able to get her fixed and ready for action in about fifteen minutes.”

“Well, Betty helped out that time,” Lisa said, motioning to Betty, who smiled.

“If I ever feel sick, you’ll be the first one to know,” Jackie acknowledged.

“You won’t be turned down,” Lisa returned.

They next went to the jeep garage, where Jackie did a little exploring, leaning against some of the jeeps. As they wandered around, they found one soldier lying on a roller bed and working under one of the jeeps, a toolbox nearby. The soldier rolled out from under the jeep’s hood and was revealed to be Private Cammy Nikita.

“Cammy, who on earth assigned you to jeep-maintenance?” Jessica inquired, confused.

“I did,” Cammy replied simply, “This girl’s fender is loose from being bounced into the ground a little too often.”

“This is Private Cammy Nikita,” Jessica told Jackie, “She has a big interest for the jeeps. Her dad works at Harley Davidson store back in Indiana.”

“So you’re a mechanic, Private?” Jackie asked.

“Not always,” Cammy said, standing up, “I’m a soldier like everyone else in Unit Comet. I just love jeeps, that’s all. I can definitely put up a good fight though,” holding her fists up to emphasize her point.

“Alright, carry on Cammy,” Jessica said, but added, “After you’re done, though, take a shower. The grease is starting to show on your face.”

“Yes ma’am,” Cammy replied, grabbing a screwdriver and holding it in between her teeth before rolling back under the jeep fender.

After a little more walking, Jessica and Jackie got into one of the jeeps to rest a bit.

“Hope you don’t mind if I stretch my legs out a little,” Jackie said, to which Jessica replied, “No, not all. I’d do the same, but the steering wheel’s blocking me.”

Slowly, Jackie slid down a bit and propped her legs on the dashboard, crossing them over each other to help stretch her muscles. She then pulled out a gum pack from her pocket, taking one strip and inserting it into her mouth.

“You want some?” Jackie asked, handing the pack over.

“Sure,” Jessica said, then added, “Spearmint, my favorite,” as she took her own strip out and stuck it into her mouth.

“Y’know,” Jackie added as they chewed, “One of those tough-guys back at Angel Hills one time said I ‘chewed like a cow’.”

“What! He did not!” Jessica quietly exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

“Yes he did,” Jackie confirmed, “You know what I said, right?”

Jessica’s look switched to a nervous showing of concern and she shook her head slowly and unsurely as she replied, “No, what did you say?”

Jackie narrowed her eyes in that signature slyness of hers and added, “Nothing. I just stood up and turned his nose into a bloody waterfall with a single punch.”

“Yikes,” Jessica muttered, “That’s brutal.”

“It’s what he deserved,” Jackie said casually.

“Didn’t you get in trouble with the base superior for that?” Jessica asked.

“No,” Jackie said, and rubbing her knuckles added, “I showed my bloodied knuckles to some of his friends and said ‘If one word of this escapes you lips, you’re next’. That basically shut ‘em up for good.”

Jessica couldn’t argue with that. Jackie had had a rough past when she was young, including the fact that her ex-boyfriend had rejected her in college only a year after the relationship started, and on very hurtful grounds too, making her a very emotional person by nature. Anyone who mocked or otherwise antagonized Jackie was either looking for a boot to the face or a torn-out rib. In short, Jackie could be all out vicious if you got on her bad side. Get on her good side, however, and you had a friend who would stay by your side regardless of the circumstances, as Jessica had learned.

“So tell me about this victory operation of yours last year,” Jackie said.

“Well, the first few days were basically spent in a trench just outside the town perimeter,” Jessica explained, “We were either picking off the guards on the outermost part of the town or repelling charges on our lines. The first charge actually came the day after we set up camp.”

At this Jessica paused and added, “Have you ever seen the Passchendaele film before?”

Jackie turned a look of utter disgust in her direction.

“Yeah,” she said, “I felt like I couldn’t stop throwing up after I watched the close-quarters combat scene, especially where that guy got an axe buried into his back. Ugh.”

“Well, it was somewhat like that,” Jessica said, “After five or so minutes of firing away at the enemy, I gave the order for Unit Comet to draw their knives and charge the enemy unit. Skipping the worst of the details, we basically cut that enemy unit to ribbons, with virtually no casualties on our side, save a few injuries.”

“Yeee,” Jackie said, gritting her teeth and widening her eyes, “How well are your soldiers trained in knife or close-quarters combat?”

“Oh they are vicious,” Jessica said, returning a serious look, “In fact, a few days prior to the start of the operation, we did a full-unit close-quarters combat demonstration among ourselves in front of Unit Eagle’s superior, General Ryan. We used plastic replicas of our combat knives, or ‘mock-knives’ as we call them, and many of us did a pretty good job of reenacting pain from any ‘wounds’ we received in the battle. By the end of the simulation, virtually none of us were alive. Even Hailey and I were among the casualties of the simulation.”

“What kind of knife do you carry?” Jackie asked out of curiosity.

“It’s a standard-issue six-inch blade,” Jessica replied, removing it from her scabbard and holding it out to show, “Has a perfectly reflective surface, no visibly-serrated edges, and can be lethal little things if you underestimate their owner.”

“Wow,” Jackie said, looking at it, “Mine is an eight-inch ‘boot knife’ as they called them back in WWI.”

At this, she handed back Jessica knife and drew her own knife, which glinted in the afternoon sun.

“A boot knife,” Jessica said, observing it with intense interest, “I didn’t think they used those in the army anymore.”

“This is somewhat antique,” Jackie said, “I obviously don’t carry it in my boot. I haven’t even had to use it really. Then again, I haven’t actually been sent to serve in battle up until now, so duh.”

“Still looks vicious,” Jessica replied.

“Continue telling me about the operation. I’m all ears now,” Jackie said, putting her knife back in its scabbard.

“Well let me ask you something, Jackie,” Jessica said, “What would you do if you were up against an enemy that had intense firepower and that would lash out like a wasp nest if you got too close and managed to withstand their firepower? How would you deal with them?”

“Probably use long range artillery to clear them out, right?” Jackie said, guessing.

“Technically that’s what happened to us,” Jessica admitted, “The next day, the enemy returned with explosives. Again, minimal casualties, but the wounded count was higher. Unit Eagle lost some men, one of our own soldiers died a day later from wounds inflicted during that firefight, and, you might find this hard to believe...I fell on a grenade and barely survived.”

At this, Jackie’s reaction of surprise was so great that she almost choked on the wad of gum in her mouth. Jessica quickly hit her on the back to keep it out of Jackie’s throat, and Jackie recovered.

“You what!?” Jackie said, her eyes wide with shock.

“I fell on a grenade,” Jessica said, “And I almost died. I was suffering from internal bleeding mainly and severe compression to my stomach. Luckily, my organs weren’t badly damaged, but it was still very bad. It took Lisa, Betty, and a number of other medics to perform a surgery back at the medical center to get me back into stable condition.”

“Good God,” Jackie whispered, “And you survived that. I thought that anyone who fell on a grenade usually didn’t survive. Those who somehow miraculously survived were usually crippled for life, weren’t they?”

“Well,” Jessica said, considering the matter briefly, “Given the fact that me and several other soldiers may have died if that grenade had remained uncovered and exploded, I decided ‘Damnit it all, I’m going down by myself. I’m not going to get blown sky high with several other soldiers.’”

“Wow, now that’s what I call a sacrifice,” Jackie said, her eyes still wide with shock.

“Aside from that,” Jessica continued, “I was back in action a little more than a day later. I then had Unit Comet put on bulletproof vests and some of us, including Hailey and I, took special force-grade riot shields. We then charged into the line fire then diverged into two groups to keep the enemy occupied. After I commissioned a sabotage attempt that destroyed the enemy’s main defensive line, we charged into the stronghold, putting almost every last soldier ‘to the sword’ as goes the phrase. We did take a number of prisoners and they were transferred to some military detainee camp. Where exactly, I don’t know.”

“How I wish I’d been there with you,” Jackie said, her expression now that narrow-eyed eagerness of hers, then added “Where’s Hailey? I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Oh you haven’t,” Jessica replied, “Well, she may be back in our bunk. We share the same bunk. She had a rather rough day. I suppose you heard about the bomb in the corner store earlier this morning, right?”

“Yeah,” Jackie admitted, “I think I even saw one or two of your soldiers being escorted to the medical center. Do you know if they’ll survive.”

“Oh they’ll survive,” Jessica assured, “Their injuries were minor, but they were mainly swimming in and out of consciousness. Lisa said they’ll be back in action by tomorrow. Hailey had an argument with a civilian. He somewhat bossed her around until she threatened to have him removed by force. She’s still in a bit of a mood from it all.”

“What the h***,” Jackie said, her eyes showing dulled annoyance, “I hate it when I get sassed like that. Come on, let’s go see her. Maybe my appearance will make her day better.”

The two girls got out of the jeep and trekked across the courtyard all the way back to the barracks. After a little walking alongside the barracks, Jessica finally found hers and rapped on the screen door.

“Hailey, it’s Jessica,” she said.

“Come on in,” Hailey said, a little tired.

“You wait outside ‘til I give the signal,” Jessica told Jackie, who nodded obediently before Jessica entered the barrack.

She found Hailey, in full uniform, sitting on the edge of the lower bunk and reading a book.

“Hey Hailey, there’s someone here who you might recognize,” Jessica said.

“Who?” Hailey asked, curious.

Jessica then waved her hand, beckoning Jackie in. Hailey’s eyes went wide when she saw Jackie and her jaw dropped. She briefly rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing the real thing.

“Jackie?” Hailey asked.

“Yes it is, girl,” Jackie said, followed by her and Hailey performing the double-clap side-ram greeting that Jackie and Jessica had exchanged early on.

“How you been, girl?” Hailey asked after adding an extra welcoming hug.

“Fierce and satisfied,” Jackie replied, “I’m now a Master Sergeant. Jessica told me you’re the second in command, right?”

“You got it in the first guess,” Hailey said eyeing her with satisfaction, “Second Lieutenant to be exact.”

“Well you ought be named First Lieutenant now,” Jackie said, “Jessica here has just been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for leading that operation last year.”

Hailey virtually screamed with happiness and hugged Jessica hard, almost playfully suffocating her.

“Great job, Jesse! Great job!” Hailey said, tears flowing through her eyes.

“Thanks, Hailey,” Jessica said, returning the hug.

That evening, as Jessica lay in bed, she began to dream about a memory in boot camp. As she slowly slipped into sleep, she could hear the sounds of propellers chopping and wind whistling through a deployment bay. When she finally fell asleep, the memory went visual.

Jessica sat next to a variety of fellow cadets aboard a paratrooper deployment aircraft, specifically a modified V-22 Osprey. Hailey and Jackie sat in the seats just across from her. One of the soldiers next to Jessica, a blond girl with her hair tied back in a neat pony tail, was tapping her boot repetitively on the metal platform below in slight anxiety. Jessica couldn’t blame her; this was going to be a paratrooper activity and they were going to be jumping from almost 20,000 feet. Any ordinary girl in their right mind would have considered that insanity, probably screamed and retreated in fright. But Jessica wasn’t willing to be a fraidy cat, even though she also found herself twitching every once a while from her own anxiety.

Finally, the bay door opened, and air came screaming through the deployment bay as the drill instructor proceeded down the aisle in between the two rows of seats.

“Alright girls!” the instructor yelled, “You will be jumping from 20,000 feet above. You must then retrieve a flag at the command post. The first girl or group to make it back to the camp with the flag in hand in the shortest time will receive an large addition to your commemoration score.”

She held up the pack as she spoke, “These things have a sensor that will open the chute automatically at 900 feet. If the chute fails to open when you reach that point, pull the red tab on the right strap. That’ll whip ‘er out quick.”

She paused and picked up a training rifle from a pile next to the parachutes and held that up before continuing.

“Be warned, though, some of your fellow cadets and other instructors will have set some booby traps and ambush formations below to stall your return to the camp. You’ll need these to ensure a quick and ‘safe’ return to camp.”

After briefly looking toward the open bay door, the instructor continued.

“Who’s going to be the first brave little girl to jump outta here?” she yelled.

Almost without second thought, Jessica raised her hand.

“Cadet Alison, what a good girl,” the instructor commented, “Grab your pack and rifle and get your a** to the bay door.”

Compliantly, Jessica removed the restraint on her seat, picked up a parachute bag and a training rifle and headed toward the bay door. As she walked, she saw Hailey’s hand rise followed shortly by Jackie’s hand going up as well.

“Cadets Rincoln and Kellerman, follow up behind Cadet Alison,” the instructor said, “If no one else is willing to volunteer, then get behind these three immediately and let them show you how it’s done.”

As the rest of the soldiers lined up behind her, Jessica clutched her hands together and tensioned her muscles, looking out at the high altitude view of the camp below. Then she heard the instructor yell “Green Light! Go!”

Taking one step back, Jessica ran forward and yelled “First Lieutenant, away!” as she spread her arms and thrust herself off the edge of the ramp with her right foot. As she fell, she heard Hailey yell “Second Lieutenant, away!” Although Jessica was out of earshot by that time, Jackie was running right behind Hailey and yelled “Look out below!” As she jumped off after.

As the tree cover below advanced on her, Jessica’s anxiety extinguished as the air whipped by her at almost frightening velocity, flapping stretches of her hair and whipping her boot laces against her ankles. After about a minute of free falling, Jessica heard a little triple beep behind her before her backpack ripped open and the chute flew out, yanking Jessica back with jaw snapping force. Jessica used the lines on her chute to guide herself as she dropped slowly toward the tree cover below.

As Jessica hit the tree cover and descended through the branches, she had to ignore an occasional sting as small branches whipped her in random parts of her body. Finally, she passed through the tree cover, but was held up as her chute got caught in the branches. Jessica hung at least five feet above the ground, her chute being the only thing holding her. Knowing that the cadets posing as the enemy would zero in on her position soon, Jessica acted quickly. She took out her combat knife and gently sawed away at the chute’s cable. After a few seconds of sawing, the chute’s cable snapped and Jessica plummeted the five feet down to the ground level, her legs pistoning into her stomach as she landed in the mass of undergrowth below.

Recovering, Jessica shed her pack and held her rifle in the ready position. She suddenly heard a rustle in the trees nearby followed by more rustling in the bushes nearby. Clicking her first clip in place, Jessica advanced slowly, breathing very quietly at the same pace as her footsteps. As she advanced behind one of the trees, the rustling got louder. Holding her breath, Jessica whipped around the tree and aimed her rifle at her assailant.

“Wait!” her supposed assailant cried out and Jessica relaxed as the person was revealed to be Hailey, who was just removing herself from her own parachute.

“J**** Hailey,” Jessica said, putting a hand to her chest in relief, “You scared me to death for second there. I thought you were one of the opposing cadets.”

“If that were me,” Hailey said, regaining her footing, “Then I probably wouldn’t have been rustling in the undergrowth as much as I was. I probably might have sniped you instead.”

Hailey was supposedly the only one so far who’d managed to come through without her parachute getting stuck in the trees. Then Jessica heard the branches snapping above before Jackie, yelling, gently crashed to the ground chute and all.

“You okay, Jackie?” Jessica asked as Jackie recovered.

“Yeah,” Jackie said, a little exhausted, “My chute failed to open automatically, and I pulled the strap just in time.”

“Where’s your chute, Jessica,” Hailey asked.

“Stuck in a tree,” Jessica admitted, “I had to use my knife cut free of the strap. I left the pack behind.”

“Well, at least we don’t have to bring the chute back ourselves,” Jackie admitted, throwing her own pack off, “I think the camp is sending out people out to collect the chutes after the activity ends.”

“Come on, let’s get going,” Hailey said as she heard the branches nearby snapping, “If we don’t get back to the camp with that flag in hand, we won’t get those commemoration points.”

“Alright, Hailey cover my left,” Jessica said, holding her rifle at the ready, “Jackie, you take the right.”

The three girls proceeded carefully through the brush, probing their rifles every once a while to check for hidden threats. At one point, Hailey was fell forward as her boot hit a tripline. Immediately after, a rope suspended from the trees grabbed her by both her legs and yanked her up, screaming. Jessica saw one girl with brown hair slinking through the bushes to their position and Jessica quickly fired her training rifle. The girl screamed, both in fury and simulated pain, and fell backward. Jackie meanwhile fired a training round into the head of another approaching cadet, and she grunted and fell back among the undergrowth, playing dead.

“Hailey, cut the rope holding your legs,” Jessica called up.

“Give me a sec,” Hailey yelled, strained, as she reached for her combat knife.

After removing it from its scabbard, Hailey bent upward and sawed away at the rope.

“Jackie, I need you to help me catch Hailey when she falls,” Jessica said.

“Understood,” Jackie said and both of them got underneath Hailey just as they heard the rope beginning to snap.

When it did, Hailey yelped as she fell, but her fall was quickly broken as Jessica and Jackie’s arms cushioned her.

“Come on, let’s keep moving,” Jessica said and her companions nodded before they started to race ahead.

Two minutes later, they were within range of their target, a yellow flag standing right next to the camp office. But trouble lay ahead; three cadets were patrolling the area surrounding the flag, training rifles at the ready. Jessica then saw one of the other cadets from her team approaching the camp from the right flank. However, she hadn’t noticed the guards, and she screamed in anguish as training rounds blasted her uniform and she collapsed backward.

“Damn, this is harder than I thought it was going to be,” Jessica seethed, narrowing her eyes in fury as two of the guard cadets smirked at each other.

“We’ll need a distraction,” Jackie said, “Hailey and I will draw them away while you run on ahead and grab the flag.”

“Good idea,” Jessica said.

After weaving a few inches closer, Jessica waved her right hand below cover, motioning Hailey and Jackie to move to the right.

Hailey and Jackie slinked along until they found a good position. Jackie then carefully aimed her rifle and placed a clean headshot to one of the guards. The cadet cried out in shock before collapsing and Hailey was quick to blast her companion before she could even raise her own rifle. With the last guard taking cover and trying to fend off Hailey and Jackie, Jessica broke out of cover and dashed to the flag. One stray shot grazed her heel, but Jessica didn’t keep that from breaking her run. She finally grabbed the flag and held it high above her head, whooping with joy as some of her other comrades emerged from the bushes. Some of them cheered, yelling with Hailey and Jackie, “Yay Jessica!”

That morning after breakfast and just prior to warm-ups, Jessica, Hailey, Jackie, and Master Sergeant Leslie Carly were called up to see General McCoy. They arrived at the general’s office in less than two minutes.

“Alright,” McCoy said after a series of salutes to each soldier, “Jessica, do you remember me telling you we’d have to make some readjustments to scheduling among other things as a result of the bomb in the corner store yesterday?”

“Yes sir, I do,” Jessica replied.

“I’ve also decided that some of the units, including your unit, will be divided into a series of companies. Your unit will be divided into four, each one commanded by one of you four standing here with me. The different companies are as follows: Alpha Company commanded by Master Sergeant Kellerman, Bravo Company commanded by Master Sergeant Carly, Charlie Company commanded by Second Lieutenant Rincoln, and Delta Company commanded by you, Lieutenant Major Allison. Are you four satisfied with this arrangement, or would you like me to rearrange it?”

“I’m fine with it,” Jessica said shrugging, and looked to her comrades, none of whom expressed any objection either.

“Very well,” McCoy said, “It is done then. And, Jessica, have you thought to inform the rest of your unit on the schedule change.”

“I notified them yesterday, but I’ll remind them at warm-ups today,” Jessica said.

“Alright, dismissed,” McCoy said and the four girls turned to leave.

As warm-ups that morning came to a close, Jessica stood firmly and announced, “Alright girls. It is my understanding that we have some new recruits. Raise your hand if you are new sign-up with our unit.”

At least four soldiers other than Jackie raised their hands. Jessica pointed to one girl with brown eyes and skin of the same color but with a young and affectionate face.

“Your name, young lady,” Jessica called out, and the soldier, saluting, replied, “Private Alyssa Jacobs. Recently transferred as of last month.”

Jessica then pointed to another soldier with long orangish-brown hair.

“Your name, young lady,” Jessica said, and the soldier replied “Private Rachel Connor.”

The next one, named Private Angela Daniels, had reflective sandy blond hair and a gentle accent. Judging by the uniform, Jessica assumed Angela to be a transfer from the British Army like Lisa.

The fourth and last new recruit Jessica called upon had inky black hair that was cut to a similar length as that of Jackie. However, her expression seemed a lot more sympathetic than Jackie’s and her eyes were of a light brownish color.

“And your name is?” Jessica asked, and the soldier replied “Private Victoria Williams.”

“Alright,” Jessica announced, “As you all were informed yesterday, two of our soldiers were injured by a bomb planted in a corner store in the nearby town. General McCoy has ordered our unit split into four companies, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. Since we will be one of four units patrolling the town on a routine shift, this split into four companies will be needed to ensure a wide area patrol. Lieutenant Rincoln and I will decide who goes in which company and you will all learn of your new companies this afternoon. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” the soldiers replied.

“Right then, who are we!?” Jessica yelled.

“Unit Comet!!” the soldiers yelled back.

“That was weak!!” Jessica retorted, “Who are we!!?”

“UNIT COMET!!!” the soldiers yelled back, some of them virtually screaming this time.

“Dismissed!” Jessica yelled, and the group disbanded.

As the soldiers left the court, Leslie approached Jessica and Hailey.

“I’m not sure I told you, but we’ve got another thing added to our agendas,” Leslie said, “The change came while you and Lieutenant Rincoln were on leave.”

“What got added?” Jessica asked, but then noticed behind the fence of the court a long wooden pole which a few soldiers were practicing their balance with.

“Because of our victory last year,” Leslie informed, “The Pentagon requested additional training stations to be set up to improve the skill and performance of the soldiers here at RECON, primarily us, Unit Comet. I’ve been serving as one of the primary instructors for some of these stations.”

“Well, let’s check some of them out,” Jessica said and Hailey added, “Sure, I could do with an extra workout.”

The first station, where they met up with Jackie, was the long wooden balance beam. This beam was supported by two mounting brackets and was raised almost six feet above a multi-layered mattress to break falls. There were some of the outdoor gym’s obstacle crates placed as step-ups and step-downs for the station. Jessica watched as one soldier, Private Kay Nicola, complete her walk across the beam and gently hop down each crate until she landed on the ground. The next soldier, Victoria, began her walk along the beam, keeping her hands outstretched as she placed one foot carefully ahead of the next. But halfway across, her right foot bumped her left heel, and she stumbled. Victoria frantically tried to regain her balance, but her center of gravity was too far off. The next thing Jessica knew, Victoria screamed as she fell backward off the beam and plummeted onto the mattress below. Victoria bounced once before coming to a rest and muttering, “Dammit,” before crawling off the mattress and continuing on.

“This looks like fun,” Jessica said and ascended the crates leading to the post.

As she reached the top and set her foot on the beam, Jessica looked down. Although she’d seen higher before, Jessica had to struggle to avoid being dizzy as the drop down looked high than it actually was. Taking a deep breath, Jessica held out her own arms and carefully took single steps across the beam. Jessica had to do everything possible to avoid looking down, even whispering repetitively to herself “Don’t look down, don’t look down.” It took her almost a minute to completely traverse the beam and get onto the step down crates. When she finally got back to ground level, Jessica leaned against one of the crates, taking her cap off and wiping her brow with relief.

“A little scarier than it seemed, hm?” Hailey said, approaching.

“It sure as h*** was,” Jessica said, looking back up at the beam, “Sometimes I forget just how high those things actually are.”

“Well you got through it at least,” Hailey said.

Jackie was next, and because she’d practiced with this before, she had less trouble traversing the beam.

As the group walked to the next activity, Jessica caught sight of some soldiers in a marching formation, but the person leading it was mainly who caught her attention. It was Private Lucile Willow, one of two initial MI6 agents who’d successfully terminated a Taliban insurgent in last years operation. Lucile was in the signature darker green military fatigue of the British military with a shiny blood-red cap and jet black military boots. She marched at the front calling out in a strict tone “Right, Left, Right, Left.”

Upon seeing Jessica and Hailey, Lucile then yelled, “Halt, one two,” and all the soldiers froze in position as Jessica approached.

“I assume you’ve been promoted?” Jessica politely inquired.

“I’ve merely been tasked as an extra drill sergeant,” Lucile replied, “We want to make sure the soldiers are well disciplined.”

“I agree completely, Lucile,” Jessica said, nodding at the well organized formation she led, then added, “Were you a drill instructor back at Birmingham before you transferred?”

“You think the record I provided was completely false?” Lucile asked with a somewhat obvious tone, but added with that eager smile of hers “Yes I was.”

“Very well, carry on drill sergeant,” Jessica said, saluting.

As Lucile and her formation continued to march, Jessica, Hailey, Jackie, and Leslie continued to the next activity.

They arrived at an array of sand-covered rows just in front of the basketball courts. Each lane measured about fifteen meters and there were white lines set down to mark the ends of each lane. Leslie led the group on ahead to the other end of the lane, where she explained how it worked.

“This activity is for the soldiers to practice carrying each other away from the battlefield if they are injured in combat,” Leslie explained, “Soldiers will be grouped in partners and one must carry her partner back to the safe zone at the beginning of the lane. The instructor supervising the activity will be issued a stopwatch to monitor how long it takes each soldier to get her comrade to safety.”

“So, one of us basically needs to fake being injured?” Jackie asked.

“No Master Sergeant,” Leslie said, briefly turning away, “I’m afraid it’s going to be a little harder than that.”

Suddenly, Leslie whipped around, a training pistol in her hand and fired. A burst of red paint exploded on Jackie’s stomach as the splatter shot made impact. Because the shot was made at close range, Jackie emitted a grotesque mix of what sounded like a grunt and gurgle as her eyes widened and she threw up her arms and fell backward. Jessica quickly hooked her arms under Jackie’s shoulders as she fell.

“Jessica! Get Jackie back to the safe zone! Move move move!!” Leslie ordered.

Knowing that the simulation was now in progress, Jessica pulled Jackie back a few inches before hauling Jackie onto her back and making a mad dash back to the safe zone with Jackie still groaning from the pressure on her stomach. Jessica managed to make it back to the safe zone within less than two minutes.

“Excellent,” Leslie said, approaching the safe zone with Hailey and clicking a stopwatch as Jessica gently unloaded Jackie from her back, then added as Jackie regained her footing, “You alright Master Sergeant?”

“I think you almost punched a hole in my stomach that time,” Jackie said, throwing a disgusted look at Leslie and rubbing her stomach.

“Supervisors for the training will also be issued a training pistol loaded with eight training rounds,” Leslie said, holding up the training pistol, “You fire one round at any part of a soldier’s body except the head and monitor how long it takes her partner to haul her back to the safe zone.”

Next they came across a bayonet training zone. Jessica was thrilled by the fact they’d installed this at RECON, since it had been a while since she’d practiced with bayonets. The instructor was Sergeant Trisha and the trainees were Privates Natasha Kilo, Anna Summers, Julia Miller, and Lucile’s sister Penny. Trisha stood on the side of the pole where the dummies were suspended and swung her arm down and yelled “Advance!”

Immediately after she said it, the four soldiers, bayonets aimed at the targets, charged, some of them yelling. Some went for the dummy’s head while others went for the chest. Julia especially became vicious with her target as she fired her rifle into the dummy after spearing it. Trisha then yelled “Fall Back!” and the soldiers backed away from their targets.

The next station was monitored by Sergeant Mary Sampson. It was sniper training zone with targets that stood almost fifteen meters away. Mary had recently been promoted to Sergeant not long after last year’s operation, and she was now the lead sniper of the unit. There were several soldiers in the group, including Private Jacey Ling and newcomer Private Rachel Connor. Mary paced along behind the snipers as they lay hunkered behind a wall prop and fired their rifles at their targets.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mary said, approaching Rachel, “Don’t put your cheek on the rifle. The kickback could split your face in half.”

Helping to readjust her position, Mary also got her to balance her rifle on her knee so as to better aim the shot before continuing on.

“How are the new snipers doing, Sergeant?” Jessica asked.

“They’re great,” Mary said, eyeing them with satisfaction, “Their ability to lock onto their targets and fire while withstanding the kickback of their rifles; they’d be great for our unit’s sniper division.”

“Right,” Jessica said, also eyeing them with pleasure, “We haven’t had much of a sniper team until now. And you’ll be the one commanding it?”

“Yes ma’am,” Mary said, saluting.

At lunch that afternoon, Jessica sat down with new recruit Victoria Williams and learned a little more about her.

“Victoria,” Jessica asked, “Are you by any chance related to Private Natalia Williams?”

“Yes I am,” Victoria said, “Many assume that I am her sister, but I’m her cousin.”

“How often did you see each other?” Jessica inquired.

“Pretty frequently,” Victoria said, “We’re both Kentucky girls, but we lived in different parts of the state. Natalia and I would see each other on various weekends or vacations and ride around my dad’s ranch a bit.”

“Natalia had an interest for horseback riding,” Jessica said, her eyes wide with surprise, “I didn’t know that. How good was she?”

“She’s really got talent,” Victoria replied, “One activity she loved to do was try and grab a flag from the ground level while the horse was mid-running. And she was able to that with no trouble. I can tell you that’s not an easy thing to do. I fell off my horse a couple times trying to do that, but thankfully never suffered severe injury from it. I think once both me and the horse fell over, but I could be exaggerating that. Did you ever have an interest for being an equestrian Lieutenant Colonel?”

“No, there’s few if not any ranches where I live,” Jessica admitted, “Besides, I just felt like I wouldn’t be able to get the hang of it. I was always afraid the horse might throw me off.”

“Yeah, it can be hard at first to bond with your mount,” Victoria replied, nodding in agreement, “If you ever see those movies where someone is able to master a wild bucker, that takes a long time to do. Usually, it takes about a month or longer to master horses like that.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Victoria,” Jessica said, shaking her hand, “I hope you and Natalia do well out on the field of battle.”

“Mark my words Lieutenant Colonel,” Victoria said, eyeing her with slyness, “You won’t be disappointed.”

Jessica then shifted her attention to Private Nicole Ambrose, one of the long time members of Unit Comet. She was talking excitedly with Privates Natalie, Linda, and Lisa.

“Hey Linda and Natalie,” Jessica said, moving over next to Lisa, “Are you two doing okay.”

“Yeah,” Natalie said, chewing off some ham with her fork, “I can tell you though, it certainly was harrowing experience.”

“I was scared that I wouldn’t make it out alive,” Linda added, “Of course I’ve been near a large explosion before and had the lights knocked out of me.”

“Right,” Jessica said, looking up at the ceiling briefly, “You were part of the detonation team sent behind the lines.

“Yep,” Linda said nodding, “But still, it was scary.”

“At least you avoided the shrapnel from the explosion,” Lisa said, then turning to Jessica added, “We had to some surgery on the injured civilians to remove the shrapnel from their bodies. It was quite risky, but none of them died from the injuries. They were sent back home earlier this morning.”

“Good thing,” Jessica said, nodding.

Then Jessica noticed something peculiar. Nicole was wearing what appeared to be a ring. And not just any ring, an engagement ring.

“Nicole?” Jessica asked, “Not to be nosy, but are you engaged?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nicole said, blushing.

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Jessica asked.

“Corporal Harris Montgomery from Unit Eagle,” Nicole replied, “We’d been sharing passionate feelings with each other since last year’s operation, but it was only a week ago that he actually proposed to me.”

“Wow,” Jessica said, “Do you know if and when you’ll get married?”

“Most likely after our service terms expire,” Nicole replied, “Especially with that bombing in the corner store and the possible return of the enemy. I doubt we’ll be able to schedule a wedding in the middle of all that.”

“Yeah,” Jessica admitted, shrugging.

“Did you ever have a love interest back home?” Nicole asked.

“No,” Jessica admitted, “I didn’t really get that close to the boys in high school or college. Sure I had a number of friends who were boys, but I never actually had time for a boyfriend.”

“A shame,” Nicole replied, “But if you’ve already got a career in mind, then you usually don’t have time for that anyway.”

“True, very true,” Jessica agreed.

Lisa, in her athletic uniform, stood at one end of the tennis court, tossing a ball repetitively while waiting to start the game. Her opponent this time was her assistant, Betty. Betty kept her racquet at the ready, waiting for the the ball to be hit. Lisa noticed as she got into position that Betty wasn’t in fully appropriate attire. Although she had her athletic shirt on and everything else, the sneakers weren’t right. Instead of appropriate tennis shoes, Betty was wearing her white Cross Trekkers slip-resistant sneakers that she wore while in the medical center.

“You sure you want to play with those on,” Lisa said, briefly looking down at her Adidas tennis shoes.

“They have good traction,” Betty called back, pulling her foot up and looking down.

“Maybe a little too much traction,” Lisa said, “They’re not designed to withstand skids. You know that, right?”

“You sure?” Betty countered playfully and kicked her toe into the ground. Her sneaker squeaked loudly in response.

Lisa simply gave her dulled look and hit the ball with her racquet. Betty deflected the shot easily, but Lisa smacked the ball to the opposite end of the court before Betty had a chance to turn and counter the shot. Betty then served and Lisa missed by a couple inches and she rolled her eyes in annoyance as she went to retrieve the ball. For almost a whole half-hour after that, the two girls kept swatting the ball to each other, and Lisa was surprised at just how well Betty was able to counter some of the shots.

“Did you ever consider going to Wimbledon, Lisa?” Betty called as she swatted the ball to Lisa.

“Never had the time,” Lisa said, returning the shot.

“Pity,” Betty replied, accidently missing a shot that bounced off the fence loudly “I think you would have made a good semi-finalist.”

“I just do it for the fun of it,” Lisa said, “I don’t have the same competitive morale that those professionals do.”

“I’m sure you do,” Betty said, swatting the ball again, “You just haven’t had time to examine it.”

Lisa later called a break and went to grab her canteen on the right bench of the field.

“Maybe I underestimated you,” Lisa said as Betty came over.

“Well, having good traction is one thing,” Betty said, playing with her laces, “But the skill is the more important thing.”

“Quite true,” Lisa said, gulping some more water from the canteen then adding, “I’m going over to the indoor gym and looking around a bit.”

“Alright,” Betty said, “I’ll practice a little extra in the meantime.”

“Go right ahead,” Lisa said, giving an encouraging smile.

Part of Lisa’s intention in going to the indoor gym was to seek asylum from the heat, as it was scorching hot outside. She also wanted to watch the boxing matches, even though she personally had no interest in participating in the sport. The players were Private Natasha and Private Lilly Carter, one of the unit’s hand-to-hand combat instructor. She found Hailey watching the match when she arrived at the ring.

“Hey Lisa,” Hailey said.

“Hey,” Lisa replied, a little exhausted, “How’s it been going so far?”

“They only just got into the ring,” Hailey informed, “But given the fact that these two have probably the highest number of victories in boxing here at RECON, I assume this is going to be a pretty vicious fight.”

“Yeah, blood and sweat more than likely,” Lisa said, “I’ll be ready to treat any of them is they get injured, though.”

“Good thinking,” Hailey said.

As always, Corporal Helen Smith was the acting referee, keeping a silver whistle at the ready to start, pause, or terminate a match. Upon blowing the whistle, Lilly and Natasha advanced on each other cautiously before Lilly hit Natasha in the cheek with a right jab. Natasha grunted as her head bent to the side from the force of the hit, but she recovered quickly. Lilly swung again, but Natasha ducked and thrust her glove into Lilly’s stomach. Lilly gagged as Natasha’s fist sunk into her stomach before Natasha thrust herself into Lilly, forcing her back against the cords. Lilly clamped her arms around Natasha, holding her in place as Natasha struggled and punched to get free. Just as Helen was about to push the two apart, Lilly kneed Natasha in the stomach.

Natasha gasped and struggled back, holding her stomach in agony but again recovering quickly. Lilly kept a competitive smirk on her face as she held her fists up, ready to block the next strike. She was not completely prepared to block a face shot, however, and Natasha’s next shot smashed into her right eye. The lights went out for second as Lilly spun and landed against the cords, trying to recover from the punch. From what Lisa could see, it wasn’t a pretty sight; Lilly’s right eye had a purplish-black bruise surrounding it, and a small stream of blood was flowing from her nose. Lilly, still trying to recover from the hit, was breathing slowly and struggling to blink away weird colors in her right eye.

“Come on Lilly!” Helen yelled encouragingly, “Come on! You can do it!”

Finally Lilly turned around, facing Natasha with seemingly bitter rage, sniffling a bit as she rubbed away the blood from her nose with her arm and returned to her combative mode. She delivered a hard shot to the left of Natasha’s face, intending to aim for the eye, but fell short by a few inches. However, Natasha was stunned by the shot, retreating back a few paces. Lilly hit her again, pushing Natasha further back. Natasha then lashed out with a somewhat defensive kick to Lilly’s stomach, forcing Lilly back with a gasp. Natasha then hit Lilly in the diaphragm, knocking the wind out of her briefly.

“Oooh, I don’t like this,” Lisa said, gritting her teeth in concern, “Not one bit.”

“At this point, they may try to kill each other,” Hailey said, “If they start getting too violent, I say we get in there and break it up.”

“I may not be a good boxer,” Lisa said, “But I can definitely do my best to break up a fight.”

Natasha swung again, but Lilly bent backward as the shot passed over her. With Natasha still recovering from her swing, Lilly pulled back and launched her strongest punch into Natasha’s cheekbone. A sound like a mixture of a pow and crunch was heard as the glove smashed into Natasha’s face. Natasha spun on her heel, her mouth open with shock and a dazed look in her eyes before she collapsed hands first on her side and rolled over unconscious. Lilly stood at the ready, fists raised as Helen yelled out “1, 2, 3, 4,” but Natasha refused to recover, lying almost dead still on the mat, eyes shut and a small trickle of blood running from the side of her lip.

Finally, Helen called “Knock Out!” and Lisa entered the ring to check on Lilly.

“How’s your eye,” Lisa asked.

“Sore,” Lilly rubbing it a bit as she removed her gloves, “In fact, a whole part of my face feels numb. It felt like Natasha threw a brick at me.”

“Trust me, I’ve seen what a brick can do, Private,” Lisa said, “And it’s worse than the injuries you’ve suffered.”

She then called to Hailey, “Lieutenant, can you grab the first aid kit?”

“Already have it,” Hailey called back, ducking under the cords and handing it to Lisa. Hailey helped Helen get Natasha to her feet while Lisa did some vision and hand-eye coordination tests with Lilly.

“Should we send Natasha to the medical center?” Hailey asked.

“Just take her over to a nearby bench,” Lisa said, “I’ll deal with her momentarily.”

After setting Natasha down to rest, Helen decided to stay with her while Hailey went off to watch some other activities. She walked by Corporal Megan Day, who was jogging away on the treadmill.

“You keepin’ a good pace, Corporal?” Hailey asked.

“Yeah,” Megan said in between light and frequent huffs and puffs, “At this point I probably completed a 2k or so.”

“Good job. Keep it up,” Hailey replied.

She then looked over at Staff Sergeant Amanda Simpson, who was wearing red boxing gloves and dealing punches with one of the punching bags. Hailey watched Amanda for a while as she side stepped forward, delivered a few quick punches with some aggressive grunts before she retreated, raised her fists defensively and repeated the action again.

Hailey then passed a couple hand-to-hand combat training sessions. The first one was with Julia and Jacey, who were exchanging punches with each other. Jacey launched a kick at Julia, but she backed away then jumped forward and punched Jacey in the throat. Jacey made a gurgled-yelp, grabbing her throat in surprise before running at Julia in fury. Julia stuck out her arm though, stunning Jacey with a grunt as Julia swung her leg into Jacey’s. Jacey spun an almost full 360 degrees before slamming back first on the mat with a an agonized gasp. Julia then kept her foot pinned on Jacey’s stomach, holding her down.

The next match was between Privates Anna and Rachel. These two were using the mock knife props that had been used in the hand-to-hand combat simulation last year to simulate a knife fight. Rachel charged and swung her mock knife at Anna, brushing her side. Anna grunted and held her side but kept her mock knife ready. She swung, but missed, and Rachel used this opportunity grab Anna’s arm and swing herself up onto Anna’s shoulders. Rachel was just about to thrust her mock knife into Anna’s chest, but Anna desperately spun herself around, and the centrifugal force of the spin knocked both girls to the ground. Anna quickly slammed herself into the mat, sandwiching Rachel and rolling off. As Rachel recovered, Anna disarmed her with a swing of her mock knife to the wrist and then thrust her mock knife into Rachel’s chest. Rachel grunted and crumpled onto the mat, clutching the fake wound in agony.

Not far from Hailey, Jessica was supervising a hand-to-hand combat session between Jackie and Kay. Jackie had her fists raised and her teeth bared, but Kay just simply kept her fists up and ready, not showing the least bit of intimidation. Jessica issued the start and stood on the sidelines as the two fighters engaged. For the first few seconds, the two girls circled each other on the mat. Then Kay raised her hand and made a sarcastic beckoning motion with a sly face.

“Are you serious, Kay?” Jessica thought in her mind, looking up at the ceiling. Kay looked quite idiotic trying to beckon her opponent forward. Strangely enough, Jackie seemed to be falling for the trick as she edged herself closer to Kay. However, before Kay was even ready, Jackie grabbed Kay’s outstretched arm and pulled her forward. Before Kay could even react, Jackie kicked her heel into Kay’s legs and flipped her onto the mat. Kay rolled away, dodging a stomp from Jackie and regaining her footing, her fists up again. Jackie thrust a punch at Kay, but Kay backed away. Kay then launched an upward side-kick that got Jackie just under the chin. Jackie yelped and fell back but recovered immediately. Jackie then sweep kicked Kay, and Kay slammed back onto mat. Before Kay could recover, Jackie held her down, then advancing on her, locked her arm around Kay’s neck. Kay struggled and clawed at Jackie’s arm trying to break free, but Jackie only held stronger. Jessica’s eyes widened in concern as she saw Kay’s eyes beginning to bulge and her face turn a very faint purple. She could also hear Kay beginning to gag as her airflow became restricted from Jackie’s arm lock.

From her own experience, Jessica knew one personal rule in hand-to-hand combat sessions was that if you were ever on the edge of defeat in a match, you should simply pretend to pass out so as to avoid any worse injuries from being inflicted on you. But Kay seemed unwilling to throw in the towel, even though Jessica was expecting Kay to at some point cry out in a strained voice “‘Nough! I give in!” Just when it seemed as though Kay was actually about to pass out from lack of oxygen, Kay smacked her head backward into Jackie’s face.

“Gaugh!” Jackie cried out, rolling off and grabbing her nose while Kay lay there, inhaling and gasping loudly.

“Okay, let’s call it off now,” Jessica said, making a wave of her hand by the throat to indicate a stop action. Kay recovered, still grabbing her throat and trying to regain all her breath. Jessica came over to Jackie, who also had recovered but had a bloody nose. Jessica quickly grabbed a towel nearby and handed it to Jackie, who held it against her nose to staunch the blood flow.

“You okay?” Jessica asked Kay as she slurped some water out of one of the canteens.

“Yeah,” Kay said rather rasped, “J***** Master Sergeant, it felt like you had an iron bar over my throat.”

“Well I certainly wasn’t expecting you to head butt me like that,” Jackie admitted, throwing the towel to the side, which was now spotted with large red dots, “That really caught me by surprise.”

“Why don’t we go play a less rough activity, Jackie,” Jessica suggested as Jackie finished recovering, “Say a few rounds of volleyball.”

“Good idea,” Jackie agreed, pulling on her sneakers and doing up the laces, “I don’t think I’ve done that since high school.”

As they trekked along the courtyard, they passed by the basketball court. As Jessica was somewhat expecting, Leslie was now the coach for basketball since Kate was no longer with them. Also in the court were Trisha, Carla, Julia, Angela, and the Reach sisters, Lucy and Sally. All the girls were on their respective ends of the court, either standing tensely and waiting for the ball or running to receive or intercept an opponent. Jessica then halted as she heard a loud sound like something heavy landing in a sandbox. Heading over to the area that she heard the sound, Jessica found Mary standing in a large and newly installed sandbox under a narrow pole mounted almost twenty feet above, wearing some red and white gloves and what appeared to be a 19 kg barbel next to her.

“J**** C**** Mary,” Jessica said, “What the h*** are you doing?”

“It’s a game back in Scotland called Weight for Height,” Mary replied, “I learned it while training at boot camp.”

“Looks almost suicidal,” Jackie commented, comparing the weight lying next to Mary and the height of the bar above her.

“Well you might as well say that about a number of the activities in the Highland Games,” Mary countered casually.

As a demonstration, Mary grabbed the weight by both hands, stood directly under the bar and then with a loud roar of tension, hurled the weight high above her. The weight just barely touched the bar and passed over it to the other side. Mary casually stepped away as the weight came crashing back into the sandbox.

“I guess I’ll give it a go,” Jessica said slowly, and Jackie just shrugged.

Mary handed her gloves over to Jessica and then helped her position herself under the bar before grabbing the weight. The weight pulled down hard on Jessica’s arms but she tried to apply as much strength as possible to keep it held.

“Ready?” Mary asked.

“I think so,” Jessica said, strained.

“Okay, ready,” Mary prepped then ordered, “Let her fly!”

Jessica almost screamed as she threw the weight high into the air. Mary quickly guided her away from the bar to avoid getting hit. The weight bounced on the bar and teetered slightly, but then rolled over the other side of the bar before falling back into the sandbox.

“Holy !%$@%!” Jessica exhaled, but adding a relieved laugh, “That was scary!”

“Well I’m impressed, Lieutenant Colonel,” Mary said, “I wasn’t expecting you to throw that far.”

“Well, keep it up, Mary,” Jessica said, handing back her gloves, “If it helps keep your muscles and hand-eye coordination in check, then I’ll be pleased.”

They finally got to the volleyball courts, where Corporal Melissa was coaching Privates Natalie, Cammy, Lucile, Victoria, Natalia, Luisa, and Alyssa.

“Hey Lieutenant Colonel,” Melissa called out, “You wanna join?”

“With all pleasure and gratitude,” Jessica said, trekking onto the sandy terrain of the volleyball court.

“I’ll be on the opposite side, Jesse,” Jackie said, then added, “Beware. I may not have played the game for a while, but I haven’t forgotten all my skills.”

“Alright, huddle up,” Jessica called to her team and Jackie did the same with her side. After both sides discussed their strategies, the girls in both groups put their hands together and called out “Take ‘em Down!” before dispersing and getting into formation at opposite ends of the net.

Jessica did the honors of delivering the first serve. Victoria returned the ball with an underhand serve that Natalia spiked over the net. Melissa missed the ball as it bounced once on the sand. Retrieving the ball, Melissa smacked the ball over the net, where it was countered by Jackie, who palmed it hard back over the net. Cammy, however, headbutted the ball and Lucile followed up with a backwards serve. Jackie lept and swatted at the ball, but the missed and fell backward against the sand but regained her footing. Alyssa hit the ball, but her trajectory was too low and the ball bounced on the ground, rolling smoothly under the net.

As the game continued, clouds of sand began to build up as the girls rushed, jumped, skidded, and slid along the playing field. The game went on for almost ten minutes, with the score bouncing repeatedly between sides. Finally, the game ended as athletic free time came to a close for the day.

At lunch, Jessica saw Melissa working on some paperwork at one of the tables. Curious, Jessica walked over to investigate.

“Hey Melissa,” Jessica said, “What’cha workin’ on?”

“It’s my admirals exam,” Melissa replied, “The Navy mailed me a packet a couple days ago. If I pass the exam, I could become an admiral and potentially command my own vessel.”

“Nice,” Jessica said, “How far along are you?”

“About halfway through,” Melissa replied, “Completing the exam isn’t the hardest part. It’s waiting for the results and whether or not I receive the promotion that’s the harder part.”

“I see,” Jessica replied, “Well, good luck. I have faith in you.”

“Thanks, I’ll need it,” Melissa acknowledged with a pleasant smile.

Jessica then headed over to a table where Mary was talking with Angela, Lucile, and Penny.

“Wow, so you also participated in the Highland Games, Mary?” Penny asked, eyes wide with fascination.

“Not exactly,” Mary said, “I just practiced with an instructor when I had spare time. I never actually participated in the games. If you see the women there, they do a h*** of a workout. I’d easily get beaten into the dust by them.”

“Well to haul nineteen kilograms over a twenty-foot high pole,” Jessica said, “That must be a real workout.”

“It is,” Mary said, gripping her arms, “But it’s fun at the same time.”

“Do you have any pictures from boot camp?” Jessica asked, “I’ve never actually been to Scotland before, but I hear it’s a beautiful place.”

“Yes, here,” Mary said, pulling a smartphone out from her pocket and pulling up some pictures.

The first picture was Mary in formation with almost twenty other soldiers, men and women alike. Then Mary showed some pictures of her in a sniper regiment, the “20th Sniper Division” as Mary said. Mary and at least ten other girls were bent down on one knee and holding their sniper rifles across their chests.

“I also served in a bag-piping band for a couple years,” Mary said, to which Angela responded, “Neat. Those are some nice instruments.”

“It depends on who you’re asking,” Mary replied, giving her an unsure look, “I enjoyed them, but I know a lot of folks who don’t especially enjoy their loud tune. They were certainly cherished among us in the military, though. Kept our spirits up.”

“Is that you?” Jessica asked, looking at a picture with two girls standing with a lake and a tall mountain in the background, holding their bagpipes proudly. Mary and the other girl were dressed in dazzling fabric kilts, neatly buttoned uniforms, and shiny black-laced marching shoes. Both girls also wore what appeared to be woolen hats with little red balls sewn on top.

“That’s me on the right,” Mary said, pointing.

“Oh my goodness, you look so cute in that uniform,” Jessica said, blushing with pleasure.

“I still have that uniform, but I didn’t bring it overseas with me,” Mary said, “I wanted my parents to keep it, just as a memory in case I never returned home from overseas.”

“Who’s the girl on the left?” Lucile inquired.

“That’s my long time friend Kaley,” Mary mentioned, “We’d been friends since I went to boot camp, and she was also in the 20th Sniper with me, but also worked with the artillery divisions on occasion.”

“Cool,” Jessica said, “Where in Scotland is she from?”

“Glasgow,” Mary said, “She was more of an urban girl, where I was born in the Ayrshire area, a more rural county.”

“Where was the photo taken?” Angela asked, “It looks like Loch Ness.”

“No, silly,” Mary replied, giving a sheepish ‘Are you kidding me’ look, “I can’t remember exactly which lake that is, but it was a few miles drive from the base. We took that on a weekend I believe, and that was just a week or so before I left to serve here in Afghanistan.”

Later that afternoon, Jessica was patrolling along the south end of the perimeter. She kept thinking about Nicole, almost overjoyed that she’d managed to get engaged with someone she’d actually enjoy the company of.

“You should’ve seeked out a lover, Jesse,” Jessica thought to herself, but then countered that thought with “But with ROTC and academics, how could I have fit a date in with all that?”

Jessica then paused and observed the desert landscape beyond the RECON premises. It didn’t seem to have changed much since before her leave of service, with the sun still scorching the sand and the dry wind kicking up occasional clouds of dust. But it all seemed so familiar and relaxing to her.

“It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?” a voice said nearby, catching Jessica a bit by surprise. Turning to her right, Jessica saw a marine with greenish blue eyes and barely visible sideburns. Just barely showing under his helmet was brownish gray hair that Jessica assumed had been given a military cut judging from how little of it showed beneath his helmet.

“I beg your pardon?” Jessica asked politely.

“The desert,” the marine replied, indicating beyond the perimeter, “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

Glancing back at the landscape, Jessica nodded and replied, “Yes it is.”

“Allow me to introduce myself,” the marine replied, holding out his hand, “Name’s Sergeant Major Jonathan Mitchell, but you can just call me John. I’m one of the lead officers for Unit Hawkeye.”

“Nice to meet you John,” Jessica said, shaking his hand, “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Alison of Unit Comet.”

“I know,” John replied with an approving smile, “Who could forget a woman of such courage and skill.”

“Thanks,” Jessica said appreciatively, then changing the subject, asked, “How long have you been serving, John?”

“About five years, if you exclude my two years with the National Guard,” John replied, leaning against the fence.

“Really?” Jessica said astonished, “You served in the National Guard.”

“Sure did,” John confirmed, “I spent some time up in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area, then moved to Virginia for the next year. How ‘bout you?”

“About four years in the Army,” Jessica replied, glancing at her assault rifle, “Three of which have been spent overseas here at RECON. I never served in the National Guard, but I’m sure it would’ve been an honor.”

“Yes,” John said, “So you’re a Lieutenant Colonel now?”

“Sure am,” Jessica replied, leaning against the fence next to John.

“Well then,” John said, standing up and briefly saluting, “And that was from last year’s operation?”

“Yes it was,” Jessica said, “Would your unit have been willing to go had Ryan not picked us.”

“Probably not,” John admitted, “Our unit was still trying to recover from the damage done to us after that ambush by the Taliban. We are after all a rather small reconnaissance unit.”

“Oh right,” Jessica added, looking down briefly, “The ambush that Carlos was killed in.”

“You knew Carlos?” John asked, curious.

“His younger sister Trisha serves in my unit as a Sergeant,” Jessica replied, “She was traumatized by the loss, I can tell you that, but she’s gotten over it. Were you there when it happened?”

“No, I was doing a perimeter patrol when it happened,” John said, “I just remember hearing a small boom in the distance, maybe a brief glow in the sky and then I later learned of what had happened.”

“Are you the leader of Unit Hawkeye?” Jessica asked, trying to clarify.

“No, although I am second in command,” John replied, “Our leader is Captain James Marshall. He’s quite a nice guy when you get to meet him.”

“I’m sure I’ve seen him around quite a bit,” Jessica replied.

“What’s interesting is that, recently, the CIA gave us reinforcements from their GRS division,” John replied.

“What? No kidding,” Jessica said, her eyes wide with surprise, “You mean they sent you Special Ops military contractors to reinforce your unit.”

“In a manner of speaking, yeah,” John said, waving his hand in a so-so response, “They were initially dispatched in their own unit to help secure the town after you girls liberated it from the Taliban. But when they heard that RECON was doing that job for them, they were given the choice of being withdrawn from the area or joining up with a RECON unit until further notice. Some of them decided to stay, and given the current circumstances, they definitely seem ready to respond to an issue.”

“Wow, I’d like to meet them,” Jessica said, standing up from the fence.

“I can take you to them,” John said, holding out his arm, “Most of the unit is probably hanging out in the club area right now.”

As Jessica looped her arm around John’s, she felt a warm comforting feeling flood her body. Was she actually falling in love with this guy? He sure had the looks and quite a friendly attitude, but then again, maybe the feeling she felt was just regular friendship. She couldn’t figure out a way to explain it to herself as they both walked to the club.

When they got there, John called out “Attention!” then went on to introduce Jessica into the area.

It didn’t take Jessica long to distinguish who was a regular marine and a Special Ops soldier. The regular marines in Unit Hawkeye had a uniform similar to John’s and hers, and they also had similar boots to hers. The Spec Ops guys, despite that they’re uniform was very similar, had low-topped hiking boot-type footwear, which Jessica remembered she’d seen on those particular soldiers. Most of them stood up and shook her hand, and one guy with a very friendly look, black hair and a short black beard in particular added a salute to her, saying “An honor to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Thank you so much,” Jessica said, honored.

“Name’s Dale,” the soldier replied, “Dale Brooks.”

“So you worked with the GRS unit,” Jessica said, to which Dale replied, “Yes ma’am. And it isn’t easy work. They often times drop you into h***.”

“Right,” Jessica said, adding a concerned look, “You’re used in high-threat areas.”

“Our main duty lies on the defensive,” Dale replied, “We only go on the offensive if ordered to, but there are exceptions.”

“How many years have you been serving?” Jessica asked, curious.

“About six years,” Dale said, thinking it over a bit, “Four years with the Army Rangers, and two with GRS.”

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other soon,” Jessica replied with a satisfactory smile, then shook his hand again and added, “It’s always a pleasure to meet someone from the Special Ops division.”

“Thanks, Lieutenant Colonel,” Dale replied, saluting as Jessica walked out with John.

“That’s quite a good crew you’ve got,” Jessica said as they exited back out into the RECON courtyard.

“They sure are,” John agreed, “Our unit is now ready to respond to any threat in the town. Just remember, Jesse...you don’t mind if I call you Jesse, do you,” John added hastily, not wanting to upset her.

“Go ahead, I like that as a nickname,” Jessica replied, smiling affectionately, “What were you going to say.”

“I was just going to say that if you or your unit is ever in trouble,” John said, “We’ll be there to help you.”

“And we will in case you guys are in trouble,” Jessica replied.

Jessica’s walkie-talkie then buzzed and she took it to her ear, adding a polite, “Excuse me please, John.”

“Jessica, this is McCoy,” came General McCoy’s voice, “I have an off site task that I need you to perform. Report to my office on the double.”

“Yes sir,” Jessica replied, then, waving, added, “See you around John.”

“A pleasure meeting you, Lieutenant Colonel,” John replied, waving back as Jessica hurried off the McCoy’s office.

As Jessica approached McCoy’s office, she noticed a couple vehicles parked just outside. One was a military jeep and the other was a white van with a long broadcast antenna attached to it’s top. On the side read CBS NEWS 8.

“So that’s what my little ‘off site’ duty is,” Jessica thought to herself, “I’m going to be interviewed, supposedly about the operation. But does McCoy expect me to take these people out to the battlefield?”

Jessica’s mind was still spinning about this thought as she approached McCoy’s office. When she arrived inside, Jessica saw a three person crew standing by McCoy’s desk. One of them held a camera on his lap, another in a T-Shirt, and finally a woman with hazel brown hair and a very friendly look, apparently the correspondent leading the team.

“This is the commander who will be giving you the tour,” McCoy said, indicating to Jessica, “Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Alison, a former First Lieutenant who helped lead the operation last year. Jessica, this team wants to interview you about the mission last year. I told them you’d be willing to take them to the battlefield and give them a tour of the operation, from day one to the victory.”

“I’d be most willing,” Jessica said obediently. Jessica wasn’t much of a press fan, but if the people back home were willing to know the story of what happened last year from someone who’d actually experienced it, then Jessica was definitely one of the best people to give a tour of the events.

“Name’s Jenny,” the correspondent replied, shaking Jessica’s hand, “Jenny Atkins.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Jessica said with pleasure.

“Are you ready to take the group down to the town and give them a tour?” McCoy asked.

“Maybe a little extemporaneous, but I’ll do it,” Jessica said confidently.

“Very good,” McCoy said, then added, “First, make sure Ms. Atkins and her crew get changed into the proper attire for being out on a battlefield. The fire of battle may have cooled, but the terrain is still rough.”

“Yes sir,” Jessica replied, saluting and escorting the team to the base locker rooms.

Jessica knew that RECON was well-equipped to prepare war correspondents from the news. They had a special section in the changing building that had military fatigues and uniforms of various sizes for war correspondents of either gender. Included with the attire was usually body armor with the word “PRESS” printed in white on both sides of the armor to distinguish these people for their professions. They also were issued hiking boot-type footwear as opposed to military boots, similar to what she’d seen John’s Special Ops soldiers wearing. Jessica looked down briefly at Jenny’s sneakers, which were slightly-dusted white Puma running sneakers; definitely not adequate for the terrain Jessica remembered fighting on.

Jessica directed the team to the changing rooms, then waited outside while they got changed, flexing her fingers or pacing back and forth in the corridor to exercise her patience. When the team finally returned wearing their uniforms and body armor, Jessica took them to the jeeps.

The remainder of the team got into the white news van while Jessica took Jenny into a nearby jeep. Driving ahead of the van, Jessica led the team out of the base and to the battlefield.

The first stop was the trench line where the units had set up camp on day one of the operation. Jessica got out and, with the camera trained mainly on her, proceeded to show off the surrounding area.

“So this is where your units set up camp the night of the first day?” Jenny asked, holding a microphone out to Jessica.

“Yes,” Jessica explained, “There were about eleven or so tents just for sleeping surrounding where we are. The command tent was over on the right there along with a few changing tents and a rations tent.”

“What were the food supplies you girls were issued while here,” Jenny asked.

“We carried a whole stockpile of supplies from the base,” Jessica replied, “But every soldier also carried some MRE’s in their pack in the event that we did run out of supplies.”

Jessica then directed them to the nature-made wash that had served as their unit’s defensive line. Jumping in and directing Jenny and the cameraman to follow her, Jessica showed them a view of the town just beyond the trench, elaborating on the night watches, the charges, and the sniping operations that were all experienced in the trenches.

“So it’s lightly raining around you girls during the fighting,” Jenny asked, looking out at the urban area beyond.

“The first day it was,” Jessica explained, “You could see almost countless enemy soldiers running up that plateau toward our lines that first day. They looked almost like a massive terror mob, armed and everything. Eventually I gave the order for my unit to draw our knives and engage the enemy in close quarters combat, because the enemy seemed to be progressively advancing on us that first day and close-quarters combat. I figured at least, was going to be the best way that we could actually hold up and force back the enemy unit, because we’d be breaking up their formation and preoccupying them with one-on-one engagements instead of them concentrating on our main line of defense. Clearly if I hadn’t given the order, we would have eventually been overrun.”

Jessica then went on to explain about the mortar attack, pointing out small shallow pits that still lay in the ground from where the shells had hit almost a year ago. The group then later drove down into the town, where Jessica parked on the main street and, seeing as there were occasional vehicles on the roadway, directed the team onto the sidewalk. From here, Jessica walked them up the street toward where she remembered the stronghold had been, giving them a minute-by-minute description of the battle as she remembered it playing out. She showed them where the enemy’s defensive line used to be and gave the team a brief look at the alleyway where Jessica assumed Trisha’s detonation team had been when they blew up the defensive line.

After a few more minutes of walking, Jessica showed them the building where the stronghold had been mainly concentrated in, where Jessica herself got a much better look of the building’s exterior. She remembered it vaguely, trying to ignore echoing sounds of gunfire and yelling from her memory as she looked at it and pointed out various things to the team.

Since the building itself was not actually in use, Jessica led them inside, pointing out the stairwell where Leslie’s team had gone up to retrieve hostages and also pointing out the approximate location of where Sergeant Kate had fallen. As hesitant as she was to doing it, she pointed out the corridor where she remembered Penny and Lucile had chased the insurgent. However, because she wasn’t there to see or experience it herself, Jessica couldn’t give any other real insight about that part.

Since Unit Comet was one of the units on patrol in the town perimeter today, Jessica allowed the team to interview some of her soldiers about their experiences in the fight. Mary recalled her task to eliminate the enemy’s snipers while Trisha recalled her leading the detonation team to destroy the enemy’s central defensive line. Some of the other soldiers gave various first-hand accounts of the battle, some pointing out their exact standing positions during a particular moment in the fighting.

After the tour was finally over, Jenny thanked Jessica and added to the camera, “This is Jenny Atkins reporting live from Afghanistan. Back to you now, Santos,” before the camera man finally lowered the camera.

“Thank you for such a detailed and influential tour,” Jenny acknowledged, shaking Jessica’s hand again.

“It’s an honor,” Jessica replied with pride and satisfaction.

That night, Jessica walked around the RECON base premises, breathing in the cool night hair to relax her muscles. As she approached the east end of the base, she saw John, standing by himself in front of the fence, quiet and unmoving. Cautiously, Jessica walked up to him, standing on his right and looking out at the desert in the faint dark blue lighting of the night sky. But there was something about John’s look that bothered Jessica; it wasn’t the same relaxed look he’d shown earlier while looking out at the desert earlier this afternoon. It was more strained, almost as though he were trying to avoid crying.

Quietly and slowly, Jessica asked, “John, is everything okay?”

“Not exactly,” John replied solemnly, then added, “Jessie, can I ask you something personal?”

“Go right ahead, John,” Jessica replied, nodding approvingly.

“Jessie, do you know what it’s like to lose someone,” John asked.

Jessica thought it over: she recalled watching Carlos die and Trisha screaming in sorrow over the loss. Then she thought about Emily, dying peacefully in the hospital bed after bleeding to death from the gunshot wounds she’d received while trying to protect Natalia. Then John intercepted her train of thought by adding, “And I don’t mean losing a soldier. I mean someone close.”

Now Jessica’s heart really began to sink. She couldn’t think of any such experience. She then thought of her younger sister, Alicia. The thought of losing her seemed absolutely unbearable.

With a somewhat pitied exhale, Jessica replied, “No. I don’t.”

“I do,” John replied and continued, “Have you ever heard of a Samuel Mitchell. Used to be a forces coordinator.”

“No I don’t believe so,” Jessica admitted truthfully.

“He was my brother,” John replied, “He perished in the Pentagon when it was struck by one of the planes. They say he stayed behind, trying to get people out of the building before the struck section caved in. Others, though, say that he was virtually incinerated when the plane hit. His body was never recovered, so I never knew what actually happened to him.”

“Oh my God,” Jessica said, her eyes wide and her hand gently cupped to her mouth in horror, “How awful.”

“That’s one reason I came overseas to fight,” John added, “Because I wanted to avenge my brother and exact a toll on those f****** Islamist Extremists.”

“Wow,” Jessica muttered, still feeling a deep sense of remorse for John, “It must’ve been painful when you found out about his death.”

“It’s hard for me to describe,” John said, “Simply put, it felt like my heart had been pried out when I heard the news. My family and I really cherished him. It’s still burned into my memory, like a hot iron rod had placed it there.”

He then took a break to suck back some tears before continuing, “However, I always try not to cry when I think about him; that is, when I’m among other soldiers, because soldiers don’t cry, do they.”

Jessica struggled in her mind to determine if this was actually true while John continued.

“So on various nights, I come out to a private spot by the perimeter and let the cool night air negate my pain temporarily.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jessica agreed, “And John, soldiers do cry occasionally. It isn’t dishonorable. When Carlos died, the pain Trisha felt was virtually unbearable. I even cried that night in Lieutenant Rincoln’s company because of that. But I agree it’s better to let the night air negate negative and painful emotions rather than have them exercised some other way.”

John simply smiled approvingly at Jessica before returning his gaze to the desert landscape.

“Don’t mind me, but I’ll let you cool off a little more, alright,” Jessica said.

“Thanks,” John said, “Good night, Jessica.”

“Good night, John,” Jessica returned before strolling off.

As Jessica walked to her bunk, she ran into Dale, who was wearing a high tech helmet of some sort with small night vision goggles in front of his eyes.

“You on patrol, Dale?” Jessica asked out of curiosity.

“No, just lookin’ around a bit,” Dale said, then taking off his helmet asked, “Would you like to try the helmet on, Lieutenant Colonel?”

“Sure,” Jessica replied.

Taking off her cap, Jessica found the helmet to be slightly heavier than her regular helmet, since it had the extra night vision goggles and certain other gear attached to it. Putting the goggles over her eyes, Jessica was amazed at just how much her vision changed. She’d worn night vision before, but the night vision displayed in these goggles was almost High-Definition. Not even a fuzz in the screen. Jessica switched her direction of sight from side to side a few times, amazed by how much she could see.

“Wow, these are totally cool,” Jessica replied, almost like a teenager thrilled by a new IPhone.

“They’re specially designed for our use,” Dale said as Jessica handed the helmet back to him. “As I said, you never know what your next mission will be. You could be dropped into a h***** night battle for all you know.”

“Right,” Jessica agreed, “Ready to respond immediately.”

“Bingo,” Dale acknowledged.

“It’s great that you have someone like John to help lead you,” Jessica said, putting her cap back on.

“Yes, he’s a great guy,” Dale agreed, “If you ever get to work with him, you’ll be glad you did, regardless of whether your rank is superior to his or lower than his. He respects soldiers of all ranks and all types.”

As Jessica continued on back to her bunk, she kept thinking about John. He may be an emotional person, but it seemed Dale was right; John did seem like a very friendly person. Again she wondered if she was actually falling in love with him, but she dismissed the thought from her mind.

Victoria frequently glanced around the area as she walked along the main street of the town. She was trying to imagine what it must’ve been like during the battle based on Natalia’s account. It was hard, but she could just make begin to imagine how different the scenery really would have been. All the townspeople present now having vacated the area, gunfire streaming through the area, explosions flaming up randomly, and soldiers on both sides ducking and firing. But given the fact she’d never actually been there, it was hard to really get a sense of a town this lively being a battlefield only a year ago. What bothered her, though, was the fact that this town could become a battlefield again pretty soon.

She rested against a car, placing a hand to her forehead as she tried to relax her mind.

“Get a hold of yourself Victoria,” she muttered to herself, “It’s just anxiety. Everything’ll be okay.”

As she regained her footing, something caught her eye. Inside the car she’d just been leaning against, she caught a glimpse of bulky items inside. Getting a closer look, she saw strange objects sown into the back and front seats of the car. Rummaging in her backpack, she pulled out a flashlight and looked inside. A shocking sight greeted her: The strange objects inside were fuses and controlling devices. Nearby these items were boxes with labels on them saying “DANGER: EXPLOSIVES INSIDE. HANDLE WITH CARE.”

Victoria started back a bit; she’d just uncovered a car bomb. Victoria was just pulling out her radio when she saw a man on the corner who suddenly stopped as she made eye contact with him. He suddenly turned and ran the other way.

“Dammit,” Victoria seethed, and took off after him.

“Delta Company, this is Victoria,” Victoria yelled into her radio as she ran, “Can anybody read me, over.”

“Jessica here,” Jessica’s voice came, “Victoria, what’s up?”

“Car bomb sighted at coordinates B18-C65,” Victoria reported, “The driver just saw me and he’s on the run right now. Pursuing driver. I need backup to cut him off.”

“Roger that,” Jessica said, “Sending support in on the double. Keep him in your sights. If he responds with violence, you have my authorization to use your weapon. Over and out.”

“Roger,” Victoria said, clicking her rifle’s clip in as she pursued the driver.

She chased the driver into an alleyway, where he tried to block her advance by knocking garbage bins and stacks of boxes in her path. Being an aerobic person, however, Victoria easily jumped or sidestepped these obstacles. However, the driver then pulled the lid off a garbage can and, before Victoria could even respond to the potential threat, threw it like a frisbee at her.

“CRACK!” The lid crashed into Victoria’s legs just above the thighs. Crying out in pain, Victoria stumbled forward and slid to a halt.

“Delta Company!” Victoria cried in agony through her radio as she grabbed her legs in agony, “Man down, repeat, man down! Lost sight of target!”

However, just a few seconds later, Trisha, Sally, Lucy, Lisa, and Linda were there and attempted to get Victoria to her feet. However, Lisa diagnosed that Victoria’s legs were badly fractured and she was currently unable to walk.

“Follow him!” Victoria yelled, and Trisha, Linda, Sally, and Lucy ran off to continue the pursuit while Lisa tended to Victoria’s injury.

Jessica, meanwhile, with the remainder of Delta company, was rushing full speed to the main street to provide additional backup.

“This is Jessica,” Jessica called into her radio, “Any sight of the target.”

“Trisha here, Jessica,” Trisha reported, “He’s running back to the main street. We’ll converge with you at coordinates B18-C65, near the location of the car bomb and attempt to cut off the target.”

“Roger,” Jessica acknowledged before cutting out.

The driver, meanwhile, managed to make it back to his vehicle and hurriedly got in.

“G.D.” Trisha snarled, and fired her rifle at the car, but only succeeded in striking the car’s side, driving some scattered holes in it.

The car then began to accelerate out into the street and drive off. Then Trisha caught sight of Sally at the corner just up ahead. She stood just on the edge of the curb and fired her rifle at the driver. Although she managed to strike the car in a number of places, the car kept advancing on her position.

“SALLY, WATCH OUT!!” screamed Lucy, but a moment too late.

A horrible crunching smack was heard as the car’s fender struck Sally straight in the middle. Sally was thrown off to the side and slid over a couple inches on the sidewalk before coming to a rest.

“SALLY!!” Lucy wailed.

“Damnit!” Linda shouted, firing her rifle in rage at the car as it veered around the nearest corner, “S***!”

By this time, Jessica and the rest of Delta Company had arrived. They followed Trisha and her group over to Sally’s body. Sally was still alive as Jessica and Lucy came to her aid, but she was quickly fading. A slab of blood trickled out the side of her mouth, her nose was bloody, and her eyes were wide with pain and fright as she lay in Jessica’s arms.

“Lu….Lu..cy,” Sally wheezed painfully, pointing in the direction of where the car had just turned, “Get that f**** b***. He’ll….kill….more...augh….if ...you…”

Sally fell limp before she could finish her sentence. Lucy gasped quietly in horror, sucking back tears and trying not to cry in anguish. Then, it seemed as though heaven worked in favor. To her right, Lucy saw a vacated military humvee jeep. Before Jessica could stop her, Lucy had taken off in a mad dash for the jeep, climbing into the driver’s seat and flooring the gas pedal in less than a minute. Jessica only stood, wide-eyed with shock as she watched Lucy’s jeep fly around the corner and after the car bomber.

“This is Lieutenant Colonel Jessica to all units,” Jessica yelled into the radio, “Car bomber at large, repeat, car bomber at large. He’s speeding quickly and will strike down anyone who tries to stop him. If you see him, engage from far range. Again, this guy will strike down anyone who blocks his path, engage from far range.”

Cutting out, Jessica ordered, “Delta Company, if you’re able to, follow me!”

Hailey and Charlie Company, meanwhile, were nearby a mosque in the urban center when they received Jessica’s message. Subsequently, Hailey had ordered her company to form a defensive line by the mosque, since it was her assumption that the driver may likely aim for a densely populated area of the town.

She could just see the car, driving quickly toward them.

“Charlie Company ready!” Hailey yelled, and the company held their rifles up in firing squad mode.

“Lieutenant Hailey, is that you?” Came Lucy’s voice through the comm.

“Private this can wait!” Hailey yelled irritably back through.

“No it can’t!” Lucy’s voice responded angrily, “I’m near your position. Get out of there while you still can.”

“What?!” Hailey yelled back, “The f***** driver is coming right for us. We can’t abandon our position to him.”

“He’s in my sights now!” Lucy yelled then added, “Goodbye Lieutenant!”

“Lucy what?!” Hailey said.

Hailey then winced as she heard Lucy scream, although it sounded more like a battle yell. Just as the car bomber crossed into the intersection directly in front of them, a humvee jeep smashed into it from the side, driving the car off course and out of Hailey’s view. Hailey heard a squeal of tires, then a series of horrible crashing and fracturing glass sounds before suddenly a loud explosion echoed through the urban area. Hailey could see a tall wall of fire just over the rooftops before the explosion died out and the fiery wall was replaced by towering black smoke.

“Charlie Company move out!” Hailey yelled, and her unit went running for the blast site.

The sight was most horrible when Hailey and her squad rounded the corner. The car was now virtually flat and gutted while the jeep lay upside down, dented and ruptured in various places. Large columns of flame and choking grayish-black smoke surrounded the area. Luckily though, all the civilians in the area and ducked or run from the area as Hailey saw a few civilians recovering from behind overturned stands or from behind the walls of the surrounding buildings.

“Hailey, what the h*** happened! Are you alright!” Jessica’s frantic voice came.

“We’re fine,” Hailey replied, “And no civilian deaths either. But I’m afraid Private Lucy….she’s dead.”

“What?” Jessica couldn’t believe what she just heard.

“Yeah,” Hailey confirmed, advancing slowly toward the wreckage, “She rammed a military jeep into the car bomber, directing it off course, but apparently detonating the explosives inside.”

Jessica stood motionless; both of the Reach sisters dead. She hadn’t known them too well, but now she really got a taste of just how protectively loyal they really were to each other. Although she should’ve felt triumphant from the fact that Lucy had just saved countless civilian lives, Jessica couldn’t find that relief within her chest. Her heart just felt like it had been pulled down by a weight.

As she stood in General McCoy’s office later that day waiting for the results of a surveillance report, Jessica had to take big but quiet breaths to cool the rush of blood in her head from the loss she’d just encountered.

“Well,” McCoy finally replied after looking over the report, “It seems that your prediction from a few days ago has come true. Enemy camps have been set up on both the east and west ends of the town.”

Jessica’s eyes widened with fright but she kept the rest of her body still and calm as she continued to listen.

“Lieutenant Colonel, I know you’ve just been through a terrible experience,” McCoy said, giving her an understanding expression, “But you still have to remain on guard. The lives of almost a hundred or so civilians will be at stake here. Your unit will need to be ready to respond to any threat or attack on the town. You may also be stationed there later on to help reinforce any units already present in the area.”

John wandered around the room of a vacated building in the town that night. He and Unit Hawkeye had been placed on a night watch for the east end of the town that evening, and he kept his rifle, a defensive pistol, and pair of night-vision electrobinoculars ready for any threat that appeared. He kept his cool, but the fact an enemy camp lay only a mile away, hidden in the darkness of the night, made him feel unsurprisingly nervous.

Suddenly, John heard gunfire followed by a loud bang out only twenty-five yards or so away. Rushing to the window, he lifted the electrobinoculars to his eyes and was shocked by what he saw. An army of militants was running from the location of the enemy camp right toward his lookout post.

“How many out there?” came Dale’s rather concerned voice.

“F*** I don’t know,” another soldier replied frightened, “There must be a hundred or so out there.”

John just rotated his view back and forth before slapping a hand to his forehead in stress. Already, he could hear his gunners on the rooftop firing away while the militants returned fire, some shaking their rifles and yelling untranslatable war cries. John fired his rifle out of the window desperately, taking out a few militants at the front lines. Then he saw a rocket flying in his direction from the wave below.

“Damnit!” he shouted with surprise and managed to jump out of the way as the rocket crashed through the window and blasted a large orange cloud into the room.

“John, we can’t hold out much longer!” Dale’s voice came over the comm, “Two of ours gunners are down. We need to find better cover than this.”

“We cannot afford to move our position Dale,” John replied loudly among the gunfire, “If we attempt to vacate, we leave this area open to attack. We may also be simple targets for them if we make a run for it. I’ll call in support. In the meantime, rally the rest of our soldiers and form a defensive line on the roof.”

“Got it,” Dale said.

Rushing to the command phone on a table over to the corner of the room he was stationed in, Michael grabbed the phone and attempted to contact Unit Eagle, the unit currently positioned on the west end of the town.

“General Ryan, this Sergeant John Mitchell,” John reported, “We are under attack and suffering serious damage. Repeat, we are under attack and need support immediately. Do you have any squads available at this time. Please respond!”

“Sergeant, I hate to admit it to you,” came General Ryan’s voice, “But we’re under attack too. I can’t send reinforcements to your position without opening up a gap in my lines. You’ll have to contact RECON. There’s still two units available to provide assistance from there.”

“Fine,” John said, then ducked as another explosion came dangerously close to his room. Switching channels, he got General McCoy on the line.

“General McCoy, Unit Hawkeye is under attack,” John yelled, panicked at this point, “We need immediate reinforcement! Ryan tells me there are two units available at RECON.”

“Yes, there’s Unit Guardian and Unit Comet,” General McCoy replied.

“Thank God,” John exhaled with great relief, “Send Unit Comet in first. If I need additional backup, I’ll contact you again.”

“Roger, McCoy out,” McCoy replied and the connection was terminated.

-----------------------------------5 minutes minus message transmission----------------------------------

Jessica was reading in her bunk with a flashlight while Hailey lay on the bunk above, sleeping soundly. Then Jessica heard a strange booming and popping sound out in the distance.

“Hailey, did you just hear something?” Jessica asked.

“Wha..What?” Hailey asked, slowly coming out of sleep-mode.

“Did you just hear something?” Jessica repeated, her eyes darting suspiciously from side to side.

“No,” Hailey replied, and collapsed against the mattress in drowsiness again. Jessica then heard it again. This time it was more like a rumble. It sounded like fireworks or...gunfire.

Jessica put on a bathrobe and hastily pulled on her boots, not bothering to do up the laces as she rushed outside. Turning her attention to where she last heard the noise, she ran up to the perimeter fence just nearby her barrack. Although too far away to see the town itself, Jessica could just barely see small dim orange and white flashes in the location of the town. And the rumbling and seemed to be getting louder. She knew what this meant.

“Oh my God,” Jessica uttered, horrified, then took off back for the barrack, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Hailey! HAILEY!”

By the time she reached the porch level of the barrack, Hailey was already outside, dressed in her own bathrobe, barely visible rings of drowsiness under her eyes.

“Jessica, what is it?” Hailey said, almost snapping out of her sleepiness.

“The town’s under attack,” Jessica yelled, “Hurry, get your uniform on! The town’s under attack!”

Without reply, Hailey dashed back into the barrack with Jessica. Just as Jessica was gathering together her uniform, the radio on her bedside table crackled and buzzed.

“Lieutenant Colonel Allison, this General McCoy,” McCoy voice came over the radio, “Are you there?”

“I’m here, General,” Jessica replied, then getting straight to the point, “I have reason to believe the town is under attack. Hailey and I are getting ready to head into battle.”

“I can confirm your suspicions, Jessica,” McCoy replied, “John just radioed in. Unit Hawkeye is under attack on the east end of the town and they need your help. Get your unit in gear and out in the courtyard ASAP.”

“Yes sir, over and out,” Jessica acknowledged, then flipped the radio’s channel to the radios in all the barracks.

“Unit Comet,” Jessica ordered, “Unit Comet, get in gear and in the courtyard right now!”

Hailey planted her boot firmly on the side of the locker while she hurriedly did up the laces. Meanwhile, Jessica pulled out her helmet and clipped it on. Since their gear and weaponry were stored in their lockers, Jessica and Hailey dashed for the locker room after they’d changed into their uniforms.

By the time they got there, a large majority of Unit Comet was already inside, pulling out body armor, helmets, weapons, ammunition, etc.

“Let’s go, move move MOVE!” Jessica yelled as she and Hailey headed for their lockers.

Removing the lock quickly, Jessica pulled out her utility belt and her trusty semi-automatic, opening it to check it’s clip before clicking it closed and sliding it into a holster on her belt. Next she pulled out her AK-47 assault rifle and tossed it onto the seat behind her while she rummaged around and pulled out about ten ammunition clips, nine of which she added to her backpack. She pulled out her combat knife, attaching that to her utility belt, some body armor that she thrust over her shoulders, and finally pulling out some night vision goggles that she clipped to her helmet, since they’d be fighting in the night time and she wanted to be ready in case of low light levels.

All the other girls were doing the same, pulling at the laces of their boots, clicking their ammo clips in place or securing other accessories to their person.

In the security office not far off, Warrant Officer Becky Sanders was getting ready for battle as well. Although she was more in charge of RECON’s base security, she still had some allegiance to Unit Comet and was willing to fight with them. She’d helped them in last year’s operation, so she certainly wasn’t going back down from the action here. She roughly placed one of her steel-toed Response Gear boots on her desk, the force of which knocked a few items off, did up the laces and zipped up the side chain on the inner edge of the boot. She then pulled out her own Glock 8mm from her desk, clipped it to her utility belt and then grabbed her standard issue assault rifle from the back locker. With her uniform and gear on, she ran outside to meet up with the rest of Unit Comet.

Jessica found General McCoy out in the courtyard just as she and Hailey raced back out of the changing building. He was listening to a radio and giving frequent responses.

“No Captain I need more information than that,” he insisted impatiently, “At least give me a rough estimate of just how many guys you’re up against.”

“General, how many?” Jessica asked, coming up alongside him.

“Exact numbers unknown,” McCoy replied, “Captain Marshall estimates maybe forty to sixty attackers. Additional enemy ground support is also on the way.”

“Let me have the radio please, General,” Jessica asked, “I want to find out how John is.”

McCoy handed it over to her and Jessica adjusted the channel to reach John.

“John, do you read me?” Jessica asked.

“Jessica, is Unit Comet on their way?” John asked hurriedly.

“Yes, John we’re on our way,” Jessica replied, “What’s your current situation?”

“We are on the verge of being overrun,” John replied, “Let me just make this clear. If we do not receive support immediately, our entire defensive line will be crushed. So get the h*** over here, or we are f***** done for.”

“Roger that,” Jessica said, “ We’ll be there in less than ten minutes, not a minute more.”

Handing back the radio, Jessica called out to her oncoming soldiers, “Listen up new recruits.”

Alyssa, Angela, Jackie, Rachel, and Victoria along with a few non-recent recruits stood at attention as Jessica proceeded.

“This is not going to be as easy as taking out a rag team of insurgents,” Jessica reported, “We’re facing a whole army of Islamic militants. They’re brutal, merciless, and unforgiving. They will stop at nothing to gain control of the town which we are fighting to protect.”

She paused, looking at each of the girls’ stone hard faces before continuing. “Remember, we have the lives of almost a hundred-fifty civilians and the lives of twenty-six American soldiers at risk here. We must do everything possible to protect them. That means we are not giving up our positions. We fight to bitter end and to the last soldier. Is that understood?”

All five new recruits obediently responded, “Yes ma’am.”

Nodding appreciatively, Jessica ordered, “Right then. Most of you will be assigned to the jeeps, but we’ll have an armored gun truck at the front. All of you, in the jeeps. Move, move!”

They all went rushing off toward the jeep garage, where at least six other jeeps and an enclosed Mobility Tactical Truck were parked outside.

“Natasha, you ever manned the chaingun on a tactical truck before?” Jessica asked and Natasha replied enthusiastically, “Aw h*** yeah, Lieutenant Colonel!”

“Alright, get in the gunner’s nest and lock-n-load,” Jessica ordered.

Several of Jessica’s soldiers clambered in the main holding space of the truck while Cammy took the wheel and Jessica got into the side seat.

“Dampen the front lights when we approach the town perimeter, Cammy,” Jessica ordered, and Cammy replied “Roger that,” as she gunned the truck’s engine to life.

“Let’s move,” Jessica ordered quietly.

“Chaingun’s locked and loaded, Lieutenant Colonel,” Natasha reported.

“Alright, give ‘em h***” Jessica replied with fierce encouragement.

“Damn right I will,” Natasha returned as they drove out of through the gate, with the other jeeps trailing behind.

As they approached the town, Jessica gave Cammy directions to a rendezvous in the town.

“Cammy, take a right,” Jessica ordered, “Go over about two blocks then make a left and straight. That should get us within range of Unit Hawkeye’s defensive line.”

“Yes ma’am,” Cammy obeyed, steering the truck as instructed.

In the first jeep just behind, Jackie and Corporal Helen kept in line with the truck, with Kay serving as their jeep’s gunner.

“Get ready for some action, Kay!” Helen called.

“Copy that!” Kay yelled back.

And right in the nick of time. Cammy saw a whole unit of militants directly ahead.

“Hostiles, twelve o’clock Lieutenant Colonel,” Cammy warned.

“Got it,” Jessica acknowledged, then turning towards Natasha asked, “You ready, Natasha?’

“Got about three hundred rounds, Lieutenant Colonel,” Natasha replied confidently, locking her sights.

“Fire when ready, Natasha,” Jessica authorized.

Almost the minute she said it, Natasha opened fire.

“Come on!” she yelled competitively, “Challenge me!”

“Ha! Their falling like sticks,” Jackie joked as she watch multiple militants collapse under the spray of machine gun fire from the truck.

A gun truck suddenly intercepted Jessica’s truck about six yards away.

“Damn. Is the windshield bullet proof, Cammy?” Jessica asked as the gunner aimed at them.

“Sure is Lieutenant Colonel,” Cammy replied.

“Alright, speed it up,” Jessica ordered, “Knock him off his sights.”

“Yes ma’am,” Cammy replied enthusiastically, flooring the gas pedal.

The truck sped forward as bullets deflected off the windshield. There was a loud bang as the truck crashed into the gun truck’s fender followed by a crash as the truck was thrown on its side. A rather rough jolt in the c***pit served as the reaction force in Jessica’s truck as they moved forward.

“Whoa, ha ha,” Cammy cheered, “That’s what I call rough riding.”

“Heh, you don’t change, do you Cammy,” Jessica commented.

In the jeep just behind, a Taliban soldier side-jumped onto the jeep’s fender, carrying a bottle bomb in his hand. Jackie brought the jeep to a screeching halt when the soldier jumped on, pulling her rifle out and firing through the windshield. She and Helen managed to kill the guy with delayed bursts from their rifles as his explosive’s fuse got low.

“Shove him out of the way!” Helen yelled, and Jackie veered the jeep sharply to the left, throwing the soldier off in the opposite direction just as the bomb went off.

“J**** that was close,” Jackie exhaled frightened.

“Get used to that, Master Sergeant,” Helen said.

The last jeep, with Julia, Anne, and Jacey inside, tried to keep in line with the rest of the convoy. However, a Taliban gun truck drove up behind, forcing Julia to weave repetitively to avoid its gunner’s line of sight. In the rear view mirror, Julia could see one of the militants in the back pull out an RPG and aim it at them.

“RPG!” Julia screamed, ducking and swerving the wheel violently to the right as the explosive slammed into the wall of a building on their left.

“Damnit!” Anne shouted, “Jacey, shoot that f***** S.O.B.!”

Jacey quickly turned the jeep’s turret, firing a rocket at the gun truck’s hood. The explosion lifted the truck into the air and threw the gunner off. By the time Julia recovered, the rest of the convoy was almost five yards ahead. An armored van driven by the militants suddenly veered in front of them, cutting them off.

“S***!” Julia screamed, both in fury and surprise and detouring to the left into a narrow side street.

“What are you doing?!” Anne yelled.

“We’re cut off!” Julia yelled back in fury, “We’ll have to rendezvous with the convoy somewhere else.”

They managed to weave through the narrow street, but were pursued by another militant driven car.

“Damn you!!” Jacey yelled, firing the turret to fend off their attackers, but seemingly to no avail.

“I see an opening!” yelled Anne, pointing towards a nearby outlet into a residential block.

There were additional foot soldiers who occasionally jumped out and fired at the jeep, but Julia would run right through them, even though the windshield was quickly becoming splintered with bullet holes. Behind them, a militant in the car threw an ignited incendiary at the jeep. The incendiary missed the jeep’s engine, but ignited a randomly placed oil barrel in the alleyway. The explosion engulfed the pursuing car and threw the jeep upwards. All those onboard screamed as they were thrown around inside the jeep. Jacey just narrowly avoided getting crushed by climbing inside the jeep as it flipped upside down and skidded to a halt right onto the residential street.

Recovering, Julia kicked a hole in the glass of the nearby door and crawled out. Anne and Jacey followed behind. Rifles up and ready, they advanced slowly around their overturned jeep, which still had a small trail of flame licking along the rear fender. They made a run for it as another gun truck veered around the corner, with the militants onboard already firing.

“Grenade!” Julia yelled, throwing it at the truck. The three girls jumped aside as the explosion ripped the gun truck in half. They were intercepted by a masked militant mid-running, but Julia and Anne managed to force him against the wall before he could fire. Julia took out her knife and attempted to stab him, but the soldier threw a punch, hitting her square in the nose and forcing her back against the other end of the alleyway with a painful cry. Anne thrust her own knife into the soldier’s middle and let him slip down.

“You S.O.B.!” shouted Julia, stomping on his chest and firing her pistol into him a couple times, “Just try that again!”

As they continued to run, they found the gate to a back alleyway that would shield them from enemy fire. Julia ran ahead, tossing her rifle over the edge and scrambling over the gate. Jacey was next, followed in tow by Anne. However, Anne noticed a militant had just rounded the corner and locked onto their position.

“Anne, look out!” Jacey yelled just as the militant fired a bouncing RPG at Anne.

“Damn!” Anne yelled, running alongside the wall as the projectile exploded a couple yards behind. The force of the blast threw Anne against the wall with an agonized grunt, causing her to drop her rifle in the process. Jacey covered her, returning fire with her grenade launcher and blasting the militant to smithereens.

“Come on Anne, move move move!” Jacey yelled, taking Anne by the hand as she retrieved her rifle. Both girls quickly clambered over the fence before reinforcements could arrive.

Elsewhere, the rest of the convoy finally pulled up just parallel to the main street in the town. As Jessica’s squad disembarked, Jessica radioed to John.

“John,” Jessica said, “We’ve arrived in the town. Repeat, our boots have hit the ground. What is your current location.”

“We’re still holding up at the outpost,” John replied, and strangely enough, his voice seemed calmer than before but still greatly concerned, “However, keep your wits about you. The militants seemed to have changed their strategy. A majority of them are moving away from our position. They’ve probably locked onto your unit. Proceed with caution until you reach our position.”

“Roger, Jessica out,” Jessica acknowledged, keeping her rifle at the ready.

The unit kept together, walking slowly with their rifles up. Some of the soldiers also rotated their aim constantly to check for any sideline attacks. The available light in the town was decent, so the girls didn’t have to put on their night vision goggles to see directly ahead of them.

“That’s strange,” Hailey said, wandering close to Jessica, “The gunfire is beginning to subside. Do you suppose Unit Hawkeye has forced them into retreat finally.”

“No,” Jessica replied, “John warned me that they’re moving position. For all we know, they could be directly in front of us.”

“Not under my watch,” Lilly said, coming up right next to them, rifle at the ready, “I’ll blast their…”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence because right at that moment, a missile screamed straight for them. Jessica and Hailey managed to duck just as the missile zipped by. Rachel and Alyssa ran forward to evade the missile, but it exploded directly behind them, throwing them both in a sideways somersault onto their sides. Chaos was among the unit immediately. Most of the girls ducked behind parked cars or crouched along the sides of the street.

“A G.D. ambush!” Jessica seethed in fright, firing her rifle wildly over the edge of a car’s fender.

Amid the gunfire and explosions, there were also continuous cries of “Four o’clock! Right flank! They’re on the roof! Coming from the porch!”

Linda was firing desperately up at the roof, but stumbled and fell backward with a cry of surprise. Rolling behind a van, Linda gained a better firing position. Victoria had ducked behind a parked car, yelling in agony as an explosion nearby briefly ringed in her ears.

“Fifteen minutes! Fifteen Minutes!” yelled Natalia nearby, coming out from behind cover and firing at some approaching Taliban soldiers.

“Left flank! Coming from above!” Lisa yelled to Cammy, who managed to throw herself out of the way of some downward-streaming gunfire.

A militant fired an RPG at Kay, who managed to throw herself out of the way as Anna yelled “Get Down!” The RPG threw Kay to the side as it exploded in front of Anna’s cover, but neither of them received serious injuries from the projectile. Jessica managed to locate Jackie, who was kneeling behind a minivan and firing frequently around the bend while enemy fire smashed through the windows of the van.

“We gotta move now,” Jessica recommended as Jackie reloaded, “We’re sitting ducks here.”

Jackie nodded and yelled to the nearest soldier, Cammy, who’d taken her own cover.

“Cammy, find an entrance into the nearest alleyway!” Jackie ordered.

“Got it!” Cammy yelled back, “Melissa, Helen, Anna let’s go!”

The other three girls followed right behind Cammy, taking cover periodically to fire.

“You want a piece of me, huh?!” Melissa yelled, firing delayed bursts from her rifle while Helen stood up and fired a rapid fire series in the same direction. Cammy finally found a nice large receiving lane on the right of the street that led to the nearby supermarket and, whistling, beckoned Jessica and Jackie to her position.

“Let’s move, we have an alternate route!” Jessica called out, running across the street and ducking from enemy fire. The rest of the unit followed behind, with some soldiers still yelling “Where’d they come from?” and “Enemy Fire! Keep Low!”

They finally made it through the lane into the store’s vacated trucking area, where they wandered around, trying to fend off any soldiers that came into sight. But something was already wrong with this plan.

“Jessica, where’s the exit outta here?!” yelled Trisha.

“Give me a sec, I’m workin’ on it,” Jessica replied, but she too was lost as she probed her rifle around.

“S*** we’re surrounded,” hissed Natalie in fright.

“I’ll take up position by the gate!” yelled Sergeant Carla.

As the unit tried to find adequate firing ground, Hailey could see the militants running along the rooftops nearby. Eventually, they took up their own firing positions and had the group surrounded.

“Incoming!” Hailey yelled before evading a small explosion from an incendiary.

The unit, by this time, had formed a ring towards the outer wall, which kept them out of the enemy’s direct line of fire but made it almost impossible to adjust.

“I’m out! I’m out!” yelled Private Luisa, and Nicole tossed her a spare ammo clip. Mary kept her rifle trained on the enemies on the rooftop, but was knocked to the ground after a shot slashed her in the side. The shot had left a long cut in her side that burned painfully, causing her to cry in agony.

“Cover me Cammy!” Jessica yelled, running in front of Mary and firing up into the window of a nearby building where she’d just seen the shot that disabled Mary come from. Through the flashes of her rifle, Jessica could see a Taliban soldier jolt and fly backward into the building with a painful yell. With the threat cleared, Jessica gently grabbed Mary by the shoulder and, yelling, pulled her to safety. Angela was firing wildly up into the buildings above, but with all the chaos now transpiring, she couldn’t tell if she was actually locked onto a target. Her fear was more what drove her instincts at this point. Suddenly, a shot blasted dangerously close to her neck, and Angela, yelling and emitting a bit of a gasp, collapsed backward.

“Man Down! Man Down!” Hailey yelled, and Lisa ran over to Angela as she cried and groaned from the pain inflicted by her wound. A pool of blood was slowly accumulating near the injury, and Lisa hastily pulled out a bandage and, balling it up, pressed it hard against Angela’s wound, successfully staunching the blood flow after a few minutes. An RPG exploded nearby, and Amanda, screaming, managed to throw herself to the ground and avoid being splintered with shrapnel.

“F***” she hissed in fright and scrambled behind cover.

“Becky give me a hand with Angela here!” Lisa yelled, and Becky rushed over and helped drag Angela, who still moaned from her injury, to safer cover.

Jessica stood frozen, the cries, yelling, gunfire, and occasional explosions eventually muting out. She looked around, hypnotised with fright. She felt like she’d just doomed her whole unit. They were pinned down from all directions, thwarting any possibility of a safe exit. Jessica heard someone yelling “Lieutenant Colonel!....LIEUTENANT COLONEL!” but she still seemed deaf to the call. Then she heard what sounded like footsteps pounding nearby. Suddenly, a nearby receiving door was kicked off its hinges and, to her surprise and relief, it was a squad from Unit Hawkeye, led by John and Dale. John and his squad diverted enemy fire but were able to stay out of range for the most part.

Now Jessica saw a open route for escape and recovered from her brief state of frozen trauma.

“We have an exit! Everybody move out! Move Out!” Jessica yelled at the top of her lungs, waving her hand frantically in the direction of the open doorway.

Immediately, most of Unit Comet made their way to the escape route. Carla found Rachel crouched by the corner of the fence, trembling and wailing.

“Come on, Rachel!” Carla said, helping her to her feet, “We have an exit! Come on!”

“Fall Back! Fall Back!” Jessica continued to yell as her unit ran by and bullets from above panged on the alleyway objects around her. Dale managed to catch sight of a gun truck approaching the alleyway that Unit Comet had entered through and loaded a grenade into the launcher section of his rifle.

“Get Down!” he yelled to some soldiers nearby as he took cover and fired.

The grenade screamed through the air before virtually ripping the truck to pieces in a fiery blast.

“Come on, keep moving people!” Trisha yelled, helping Becky and Lisa escort Angela into the building.

“Lucile!” Penny called out as she ran inside.

Jessica saw Lucile just outside, still fending off enemy units above while the rest of the unit and Unit Hawkeye ran back inside. Then Lucile received a shot to her ankle, and she yelped and groaned as she stumbled and collapsed on her side.

“S***, S***, S***!” Lucile whined, grabbing her leg in agony, then hollered, “Penny!”

Penny rushed past Jessica and helped her sister to her feet, guiding Lucile at a limp back inside. The building they found themselves in was an abandoned apartment building, and Jessica broke down a door into the first floor of the building.

“U.S. Army!” Jessica yelled, probing her rifle rapidly around the area.

“U.S. Army! Anyone in here!” yelled Trisha and Kay, probing their rifles inside the building as well.

“Coast clear!” Trisha followed up after a brief 360 degree view of the area.

“Move the wounded to the parlor!” Lisa ordered, dragging Angela over to a sofa and setting her gently on it. The other soldiers escorting their wounded comrades complied, helping them into the parlor and either laying them gently on the floor, against a wall, or anything else that served as a sufficient resting area.

“Kay, Anna secure the other rooms on this floor,” Jessica ordered and John ordered some his own men to help reinforce them as Jessica went into the living room.

“Lisa, how’s Angela?” Jessica asked Lisa.

“It was a close one,” Lisa replied as Angela coughed and wheezed, “The shot just barely grazed her jugular vein. I managed to stop the bloodflow before any severe blood loss could occur, but it’ll be at least ten minutes before she can fully recover.”

Jessica then turned her attention to Betty, who was tending to Rachel, who’d been propped up against the wall. Coming up next to Betty, Jessica saw that Rachel’s eyes were wide with fear and her body trembled at a visibly disturbing rate.

“Betty, what’s up with Rachel?” Jessica asked, concerned.

“It’s what WWI doctors used to call ‘Shell Shock’,” Betty answered, “An earlier form of the diagnosis for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

Jessica remembered that Rachel had been at the back of the squad when the first rocket hit, which was also towards the back of the unit. Jessica also recalled from history lessons just how debilitating Shell Shock really was, but Rachel didn’t appear to be suffering the worst of it thankfully. Rachel was bruised, but other than that, there were no serious external injuries that appeared to have been inflicted on her.

“How long before she snaps out of it?” Jessica asked.

“At least twenty four hours,” Betty replied.

“What?” Jessica responded, “Why that long?”

Betty gave her a disapproving glare and added, “Shell Shock and other post-trauma symptoms aren’t your common cold, Lieutenant Colonel. Curing such symptoms takes time and patience.”

“Sorry, Betty,” Jessica apologized, cursing at herself in her mind for being so impatient, “Carry on.”

Jessica continued to look around the temporary hospital they’d set up; Penny was applying a dressing to Lucile’s wounded ankle while Nicole held patch up to Mary’s injured side. Returning to the adjacent room, Jessica looked around as her soldiers lay down to rest, took up watch positions by the windows, or patrolled the adjacent rooms.

“What’ve you got, Anna?” Jessica asked, coming over to her.

“Can’t see a G.D. thing,” Anna replied frustrated, “There’s still smoke and dust from the battle outside. My view is almost ninety percent obstructed.”

“Looks like we could be here for a while,” Jessica mumbled, then went over to Hailey.

“Where’s John and Dale?” she asked, looking around.

“They went up to the roof level,” Hailey said, “Trying to clear out that ambush force from a safe distance.”

“I need to go up there,” Jessica said, but Hailey held her back.

“Don’t Jessica, they’ll be fine,” Hailey insisted, “You need to rest.”

Jessica, somewhat reluctantly, nodded and wandered over to another couch that stood against a wall. Removing her helmet, she gently hauled herself onto the couch and laid against a pillow. Glancing at her wristwatch, she muttered “Dammit,” as it showed one o’clock in the morning. She hadn’t really gotten much of a rest before responding to the attack. Although the ambush had really spiked her senses, now in the safety of an apartment building, her own unit, and Unit Hawkeye, Jessica let fatigue overrun her and she quickly slipped into a peaceful sleep.

As Hailey paced around, she did a headcount of everyone in Unit Comet who was in the building. But she noticed that not all were present. She repeated the headcount, making sure that she hadn’t missed herself or anyone else. Still, she noticed three were missing.

“Where’s Jacey, Julia, and Anne?” Hailey asked, then amplifying her voice, repeated, “Has anyone seen Privates Julia, Jacey, or Anne?”

“No ma’am,” Leslie replied, looking around, “I checked myself. I also noticed that one of our jeeps was missing from the convoy when we pulled up.”

“What!” Hailey said, almost shouting, “Why didn’t you tell me or Jessica this before?”

“I was going to,” Leslie protested, “But those f***** bastards attacked before I could notify you.”

“Lieutenant!” a soldier called from nearby, and Hailey rushed over to see Lilly pointing out the doorway toward the street.

“What is it, Lilly?” Hailey asked.

“Three soldiers nearby,” Lilly said, “They appear to be from either our unit or Unit Hawkeye.”

Hailey put her night vision goggles on and strained her sight to get a better view. Sure enough, it was Julia, Anne, and Jacey who were there, waiting cautiously by the corner of an alleyway across the street from them.

Hailey whistled to them and yelled “Over Here! Hurry!”

The three late arrivals rushed toward the entrance to the building, but were fired upon from above, even though they managed to avoid most of the gunfire. Jacey was suddenly hit in the thigh by a shot that blasted right through. Jacey screamed horribly and collapsed on the ground as Julia and Anne managed to rush inside.

“Jacey!” Anne cried out.

“We have to get her back!” Julia insisted, yelling.

“I’ll get her, you stay here!” Hailey ordered and rushed outside to Jacey, who was still holding her leg in agony.

Hailey quickly pulled Jacey to her feet and rushed back toward the entrance to the building as bullets rained down all around her. A stinging burn hit Hailey towards the lower part of her back, and Hailey grimaced a bit but kept running until she was in the safety of the building.

“I need a medic!” Hailey yelled, and Linda ran over to help Jacey limp over to Lisa’s temporary hospital. Then Julia looked at Hailey with a very concerned expression.

“Julia, what’s wrong,” Hailey asked, returning her own concerned expression.

“Lieutenant...you’re hurt,” Julia said slowly.

“Well of course I am,” Hailey replied, impatiently, “Bruised and all from that damn ambush.”

“No, seriously,” Julia repeated, this time more seriously, “You’re hurt.”

“What are you talking about?” Hailey said, then wheezed an “Oh,” as the stinging feeling from earlier pierced her nerves again. She reached behind to rub the source of the pain, then froze as she felt something wet on her back. She also felt a tear in her uniform and in the skin of her back. Slowly, she drew her hand back and her eyes widened as she saw her hand covered in blood. The sight of how much blood there was made Hailey sick to the stomach and the world began to twist before she finally fainted.

Julia rushed forward and caught the Second Lieutenant in her arms.

“Anne! Give me a hand here!” Julia yelled.

Anne was there the second she said it, helping haul Hailey’s unconscious body over to the mini-hospital for Lisa to take care of.

Up on the rooftop, John, keeping low, ducked to a position next to Dale as he fired a grenade toward an adjacent roof toward one of the enemy units. The grenade blasted an HVAC unit on the roof and several militants were thrown in various directions.

“That’s the last one,” Dale said, relaxing and slipping behind cover.

“Your last grenade?” John asked.

“No, the last enemy unit,” Dale clarified, “The remnants of those bastards have taken flight and run back to their camp.”

“So we’re safe now, for the moment,” John said, looking over the edge of the roof where the damaged HVAC unit still smoked, “That was damn close.”

“Yeah, we were almost overrun and Unit Comet almost crushed,” Dale agreed, “Good thing you organized that rescue squad.”

“What else could I do?” John replied, “Let a whole squad of soldiers fall to enemy fire to save ourselves? Besides, I’ve gave my word to their commander, Jessica, that I’d rescue her unit if they were ever in trouble and she promised to do the same.”

“Good thing that you stick to your promises,” Dale acknowledged, “Especially with a woman, no offense.”

“I’ll go see how she’s doing,” John said, looking over the edge of the roof again, “Keep watch, alright, Dale.”

“Yes sir,” Dale replied.

John finally got down to the first floor, where Unit Comet was still holding up. As he walked by, he was greeted by a number of soldiers with gentle remarks of “Thank you” and “You saved us.” John would always nod and add a reassuring smile to everyone who said that. He felt relieved he’d saved not just one unit but two units from certain destruction. He finally found Jessica, lying peacefully on a couch near the living room. Although she had dirt smudged on parts of her face and caked around her uniform and boots, she still looked beautiful lying on the couch.

Quietly, John pulled up a chair and sat next to her for a while, watching her slowly inhale and exhale as she slept soundly.

“She could do with something a little more comfortable,” John thought to himself. He looked around and, in a nearby bedroom, saw a nice warm blanket neatly folded. Retrieving it, he tip-toed back to Jessica and, unfolding the blanket, gently placed it over the sleeping Lieutenant Colonel without so much as nudging her.

“Sleep well, Jesse,” he whispered, “You’ve been through a lot, so get some rest.”

Jessica was surprised when she woke up to find herself tucked into a warm quilt on the couch she’d fallen asleep on the night of the ambush. Looking around, she saw a number of her soldiers up and moving about, but there were some who’d taken rest against a wall or something else rest-worthy to get some shut eye. Some traces of sunlight were beginning to show through the windows as Jessica struggled to recover.

“Hey Jesse,” John said as walked over to her.

“John!” Jessica quietly exclaimed, hugging him.

“Did you sleep okay last night?” John asked after Jessica had relaxed.

“Yeah, but I was still terrified by the ambush,” Jessica replied, “How’s my unit holding up?”

“We’re fine,” said Hailey, who was coming over to them at a rather slow pace, “Battered and bloody, but we’re fine. We’ll live to fight another day.”

“Something wrong Hailey?” Jessica asked, sitting up, “You look like you got wounded.”

“I was,” Hailey admitted, “Got sliced in the back by one of those sharpshooters from above, but got proper medical treatment almost immediately.”

“Well I’m glad you’re okay,” Jessica replied, “And you John?”

“Just fright, that was it,” John replied casually, “I’m glad you heeded our call.”

“Gotta keep my promise to protect your unit if you’re ever in trouble, right?” Jessica replied, giving him a sly look.

“Yeah, but almost at the expense of your life and your unit,” John countered politely.

“Hope you don’t mind me breaking up the debate,” Hailey said, “But I do have a message from General McCoy.”

Jessica and John both stood at attention at this and listened to Hailey.

“Because of the assault last night, McCoy is ordering all RECON units to help evacuate civilians to designated safe houses towards the center of the town. Sergeant, please relay to Captain Marshall that Unit Hawkeye is to gather up civilians in inner urban parts of the east end of the town.”

“Yes, ma’am,” John replied obediently.

“Jessica, we’re going out to the suburbs of the town to escort civilians from that point to the safe houses,” Hailey continued.

“Well sounds like we’ve got work to do then,” Jessica said, “Is the rest of the unit ready for action after that harrowing experience from last night?”

“They should be,” Hailey said.

“How about Rachel and Angela?” Jessica asked, a bit concerned, “Are they ready to fight?”

“Angela’s wound was bandaged up overnight,” Hailey reported, “And Rachel also seems to have recovered relatively well. She’s still anxious every once a while, but Betty told me that she’s not trembling or otherwise paranoid anymore.”

“Thank the heavens for that,” Jessica said, assured, then headed over to the center of the room.

After clapping her hands loudly to get everyone’s attention, Jessica proceeded to relay what Hailey had just told her.

“Alright girls, listen up,” Jessica announced, “I know that last night was a terrifying experience. But we still have a task at hand. General McCoy is ordering all RECON units to help escort civilians to a series of safe houses in response to the attack last night. Our job is to go out to the outer edges of the town to gather the civilians in the suburban area just north of the town center. Again, we’re still at war here, and we have a town in our protection and countless civilian lives to save here. We cannot let that priority slip. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” the unit replied.

“Alright, who are we?” Jessica asked.

“Unit Comet!” the unit yelled back, even though they kept their voices down a bit.

“Damn right we are,” Jessica acknowledged, “If you’re ready, then let’s move.”

All through that morning, Jessica and Unit Comet traveled throughout the suburbs of the northern end of the town. Jessica, Hailey, Leslie, Jackie, and anyone else who wasn’t a Private would normally go up to the door of a house or apartment, knock gently, inform the occupants inside who they were and that they were evacuating them to the center of the town to keep them safe from Taliban advances. Each of them would then be accompanied by a squad of soldiers to help them pack up their belongings and supplies for the temporary stay. Because these same soldiers had saved their town from the Taliban before, the majority of the civilians inside were reassured by their presence and would comply with them without question. Jessica had also ordered that her soldiers not to carry their weapon with them while in the presence of civilians so as to avoid frightening them. All units escorting civilians had been provided with military sedan trucks to transport the civilians with instructions to have soldiers from the units ride onboard to serve as bodyguards and safety supervisors. Any soldiers not on board the trucks were to drive alongside the trucks in the Humvee jeeps as extra protection.

Unit Comet’s convoy was instructed to go to safe house Echo, which was actually the town’s central mosque. After rounding up the last of the civilians in the area, Unit Comet’s convoy began to move back toward the town. With the exception of the grinding of tires against the dirt road and the guzzle of the truck engines, the area around them seemed eerily quiet. Then Jessica, on board the lead sedan with Hailey, heard some rumbling out in the distance. Looking just above the sedan’s hood, Jessica saw smoke in the roadway a mile ahead, with some dim red and orange flashes showing every once awhile.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Jessica mumbled, then turning to Hailey reported, “Hailey, I think there’s a battle going on up ahead.”

“What?” Hailey asked, carefully weaving between the civilians and coming up next to Jessica.

“Look out there,” Jessica said, pointing to the smoke, “If we proceed into that, we might end up in the middle of a firefight. We’ll have to take a detour.”

“Good idea,” Hailey said, understanding fully what the consequences could be. Pulling out a map in the pocket of her uniform, Hailey looked over it and then added, “There’s a side street up ahead and just ten meters short of our position. We can probably fit our convoy in bit by bit through there to evade.”

Jessica was just about to reply when one of the flashes up ahead revealed a rocket flying up and bending toward them.

“LOOK OUT!” Jessica yelled, “Incoming missile!”

The driver of the sedan, Linda, veered the truck out of the way as the rocket missed them completely and exploded on the side of the street out of range of the convoy. Immediately, though, bullets began to fly at their convoy, and Linda quickly pulled the truck to a stop and ducked as the windshield became splintered with bullet holes. Amidst the screams of frightened civilians, Jessica could see through the smoke a squad of Afghan soldiers who appeared to be fighting Taliban soldiers directly ahead of them.

“Anti-Taliban resistance fighters,” Jessica reported to Hailey.

“Seems like they’re drawing enemy fire,” Hailey said, “Let’s get these civilians off the trucks and out of the war zone. I’ll set up a defensive line at the front, you and some of the soldiers get the civilians to the back of the convoy.”

“Got it,” Jessica agreed and rushed out the back with Hailey, yelling to the civilians and their soldier guards, “Let’s go, move move move!”

“Come on, everybody out, quickly!” one of the soldiers on board, Lisa, followed up, helping Jessica lower civilians from the truck to the ground level while Hailey ran on ahead with several soldiers from various jeeps and sedans.

“Luisa, give me a defensive line by that first jeep!” Hailey ordered, and Luisa, Nicole, and Angela rushed to the front to set up a rifle-line.

Jessica meanwhile helped keep the civilians down and out of the line of fire. Jessica bent over to the one of the adult civilians, who appeared to be the father of some of the child refugees in their group, and informed, “Is everybody calm? I’ll be right back, alright. Keep them safe for me please.”

“Yes ma’am,” the man replied gently before Jessica took off at a light jog towards Hailey’s defensive line, weaving between streams of gunfire.

“Hailey,” Jessica said, “There’s a narrow side street over there at three o’clock,” pointing to a narrow one-way street to her right. “If we can move our civilians to that side street, we can get them out of the line of fire.”

“I got an enemy squadron up on the roof,” Luisa reported, “They’re closing in.”

Suddenly, a mortar screamed through the air, killing several of the resistance fighters up ahead and forcing the remnants into retreat.

“Lieutenant!” Nicole called out, “The resistance group is compromised! Nothing’s stopping the enemy now!”

Seeing as they were now open targets, Hailey said, “Jessica, the civilians will need cover fire at this point if they’re going to make it to the side street alive. Go gather up as many soldiers as possible and help me reinforce the line.”

Jessica and Hailey ducked as a burst of dust and smoke erupted nearby before Jessica ran off to rally extra support.

“Kay, Leslie, Megan, Cammy, follow up and reinforce the line,” Jessica ordered, running past them with Hailey back to the convoy.

The four soldiers arrived quickly behind the main defensive line while Jackie came up with additional support from Alpha Company on the right flank.

“Trisha, keep the civilians down, alright,” Hailey ordered, then ordered to Amanda and Victoria “You two, secure that side street. Move!”

“Yes ma’am!” they both yelled and ran off, side stepping enemy fire that plunged into the street around them.

Amanda skidded to a halt by a jeep and looked past to help coordinate the best route from there while Victoria provided cover fire. Trisha, meanwhile, was rushing civilians behind the trucks, yelling “Quickly quickly, get behind the trucks! Now! Move move move!” then pulling herself behind the truck as several bullets ricocheted off the truck’s side.

“Route secure, we’re moving forward,” Amanda ordered to Victoria.

“Roger,” Victoria acknowledged, following behind.

“Jackie!” Jessica yelled from behind cover, pointing to the balcony leading to a mounted front porch of a building on the left, “Get a firing squad up on that building’s porch! Move!”

“Yes Jessie!” Jackie called back, then turning to her squad, “Anna, follow me!”

Alyssa had taken cover behind one of the jeeps and watched as Jackie and Anna rushed up the stairs to the porch.

“I’m going up with them,” she thought to herself, “I feel as though I’ve been otherwise invaluable up until now.”

As Jackie and Anna made it to the top, Alyssa ran out from behind cover,rushing up the stairs behind them. Trisha, meanwhile, was helping to inform the civilians of the evacuation route.

“When the coast is clear, we’ll run across from here to that jeep,” Trisha said, pointing to a nearby jeep, “Each of you will be escorted in groups accompanied by me or certain other soldiers from the unit. Children will go first, and I promise over my life, we’ll make sure nothing happens to them, okay?”

A mother who kept some girls tucked next to her nodded, and Trisha said, “Alright, stay down until I get the order to escort you.”

A large orange-red cloud flowered ahead of Jackie and Anna’s firing squad before Jackie saw Taliban soldiers advancing on their lines.

“Lieutenant, hostile battalion, twelve o’clock!” Jackie called down to Hailey, “Three hundred meters and closing fast!”

“Covering covering!” Anna yelled, then paused as she felt someone push up next to her. It was Alyssa, who’d made it up to the porch and had weaved in between Jackie and Anna.

“What the h*** are you doing?” Anna insisted.

“Giving you extra firepower,” Alyssa responded, setting her rifle on the edge of the balcony, “You guys need it.”

“She’s right,” Jackie said, “We need extra firepower now.”

“Alright,” Anna agreed, and not reluctantly, then added, “One o’clock! Up on the roof, one o’clock!”

They started firing before a rocket was launched from the roof and went flying over them.

“Incoming!!” Jessica shouted before the rocket made impact nearby the evacuation route. Alyssa gapped in fear, worried that Amanda and Victoria had been blown to pieces.

Thankfully, they hadn’t. When the mortar hit, Victoria was thrown high into the air from the force of the explosion and Amanda forced to the ground. Victoria, twirling in the air, slammed into the back windshield of a car, fogging the window with cracks but miraculously not inflicting severe injury on Victoria as she slid off unconsciously.

“Dammit,” Alyssa hissed, firing away in the direction of the rooftop.

“Nine o’clock!” yelled Jackie, firing at some militants emerging from behind cover on the left flank ahead of them.

Back at the evacuation route, Victoria, with assistance from Amanda, recovered from her unconsciousness, her back aching painfully and almost every point in her body numb.

“You okay, Private?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah, ow,” Victoria replied, still a bit dazed and rubbing her back, “Could’ve been worse for me, I guess.”

“Reloading,” Anna informed as she ducked down and inserted another clip into her rifle.

“Aim for their squad leader, girls!” Jackie ordered.

Alyssa quickly pulled the trigger on her rifle, locking onto a Taliban soldier at the front who was rallying the others to advance. Her shots threw him to the ground and finished him off within less than three seconds.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Alyssa crowed.

“Hah, you’re a good shot, Alyssa,” Anna commented with an enthusiastic smile.

“Nailed that b**** quickly,” Jackie added on.

The death of their squad leader forced the battalion into a brief state of confusion, causing them to retreat a few paces back. Seizing the opportunity, Jessica yelled to Trisha, “Coast clear, send your first civilian group across now!”

“Yes Lieutenant Colonel!” Trisha yelled back, then turning to the small group of civilians behind her, helped them to their feet. Natalia arrived to help Trisha escort the civilians at a running pace to the cover of the jeeps and over to the side street where Amanda and Victoria were waiting for them while Jessica and Hailey provided cover fire.

Kay and Lilly ran around to the left flank to reinforce the defensive line, catching by surprise and gunning down a lone approaching Taliban soldier. Cammy, meanwhile, had rushed back to one of the jeeps at the front of the convoy, hopping into the back seat and hiking up into the gunner’s nest.

“I’m covering the right flank!” Cammy called out, locking the clip into the jeep’s machine gun, “Here I go!”

Cammy’s body jolted and vibrated as round after round was spit out by the machine gun. Controlling the jolting of her body, Cammy turned her aim towards the rooftop on her right, where the enemy’s mortar launch area was. A few seconds of firing and a blast of orange and blackish smoke shot upward and curled over the building as the ammunition ignited and the launch site was incinerated.

“Yee-Haw!” Cammy called out triumphantly.

“Nice shooting Cammy,” Hailey complimented, adding a triumphant laugh of her own.

“Yeah, take that you dogs,” Leslie called out from behind cover.

Jessica was beginning to feel relieved, but then she saw a gun truck pull up ahead among the retreating militants. Reaching for some electro-binoculars from her backpack, she zoomed in and saw one of the gunners on board with an RPG launcher.

“RPG’s!” Jessica warned at a yell, “Fall back to safer cover now!”

The soldiers on the defensive line complied, quickly vacating their positions as the militant loaded his first rocket. Luisa stumbled and tripped as she got up from cover. Recovering, she saw the militant aim for her cover.

“F***!” Luisa swore, frightened as she struggled to her feet and ran. However, the militant fired just as she broke into a run.

From the gunner’s nest of the jeep, Cammy watched in horror as the rocket smashed into an abandoned car nearby. The explosion threw Luisa high into the air before she hit the ground and rolled over, unmoving.

“G.D.!” Cammy swore, firing the machine gun at the gun truck.

Back at the convoy, Anne was helping Natalia move another group of refugees. One girl was crying and screaming, not wanting to be separated from her mom. Noticing that the defensive line was in retreat, Anne quickly by gently hauled the girl onto her shoulders, trying to assure her “I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

She took off at a run as most of the defensive squad took up position further back. Cammy continued to fire at the enemy gun truck, but she was finding it frustratingly hard to keep a line of aim centered on the truck, even though it clearly wasn’t moving its position much. She was able to gun down a number of the militants surrounding it though, making it hard to provide backup to the mortar launcher. A shot from one of the other militants then struck her in the hand, slicing down the backside of her hand and embedding itself in her wrist.

“Ow!” Cammy cried out in agony, and vacated her position. She managed to jump off the jeep just as an RPG smashed into the jeep, throwing her forward and skidding on the ground. Anne, who’d been running with the girl on her back, was also thrown by the explosion, although thankfully none of the shrapnel reached that far. However, she and the girl, who screamed in fright, were somersaulted forward from the force of the blast. Anne managed to hold onto the girl and twist herself backward to prevent injury to the girl as they slid across the ground a few centimeters. Victoria helped the two up and got them behind cover with the other waiting civilians.

“Get the f****** bastards surrounding that thing!!” Jackie yelled to her firing squad, almost screaming in rage. In saying this, she quickly gunned down a militant running near the front of the gun truck, also managing to splinter the gun truck’s windshield.

Hailey, meanwhile, ran over to Cammy, who was whining and struggling to regain her footing.

“Come on, Cammy, on your feet!” Hailey yelled, pulling Cammy to her feet as she continued to grimace in pain.

Meanwhile, the RPG-launching militant had locked onto the porch where Jackie’s firing squad was.

“Master Sergeant, they’re after us now!” Anna yelled.

“We can’t fight that thing if it’s locked onto us,” Jackie mused in fright then ordered, “Fall back now!”

Jackie took off down the stairs of the porch, flipping over the side-banister of the stairway in doing so. Anna and Alyssa turned to follow, but Alyssa tripped and hit the floor hard, crying out in pain.

“Alyssa are you okay?” Anna asked desperately.

“Arm’s fractured!” Alyssa called back painfully.

Anna thought desperately; any minute now, the RPG would be fired at them. Knowing they were not that far off the ground, Anna helped Alyssa over the edge of the balcony and let her drop a few feet down onto the dirt road below. Alyssa landed safely and rushed over to Jackie as Anna heard the distant pow of the RPG launcher. Seeing the shell whistling in her direction, Anna quickly ascended the balcony herself. She was just completing the ascent when the rocket hit, throwing her right over the edge, screaming. She managed to land hands and feet first, and although they weren’t broken, she was still badly injured from the fall. Jackie helped drag Anna behind the cover of a nearby truck as a section of the flaming porch collapsed.

Elsewhere, Jessica thought desperately. The RPG unit was closing in and eliminating most of her coverfire. She then remembered that some of the jeeps still had spare charged explosives inside, and Jessica quickly rushed into a nearby jeep, locating and grabbing a duffel bag with a red and white DANGER on it.

“Master Sergeant Carly, we’re going to lay a booby trap to halt that unit,” Jessica ordered.

Leslie followed, calling on Carla and Lilly to follow up behind and provide cover fire while they laid the explosives. Because this was a sabotage mission, Jessica and her group had to advance dangerously close to enemy lines. They finally located a parked car that, if the militant’s gun truck passed by, would put them in perfect range of an explosive that was laid near the car’s gas tank. Prying off the lid to the gas intake, Jessica prompted “Let’s blow these bastards to kingdom come!”

“Roger that, Lieutenant Colonel,” Leslie said as they began to carefully stuff explosives in critical sections of the car.

Carla and Lilly helped draw enemy fire by providing their own cover fire. Lilly took a series of shots at the militants before retreating to another firing position while Carla covered her. After about several shots, though, Carla was struck in the shoulder. Crying in pain, Carla slid down behind the car, grabbing at her shoulder as blood began to run down from the wound. Lilly, though, returned and helped Carla to her feet as they ran for safer cover.

“Alright, that one’s loaded and ready to go,” Jessica said, and she and Leslie took off at a run behind Lilly and Carla. Jessica then heard another RPG being fired and an explosion threw them to the ground. Neither Jessica nor Leslie were seriously injured, however, Jessica lost the detonation remote that had been in her hand before she fell. She swore in anger, but Leslie helped guide her back.

“We can detonate them with a long range shot from our standard arsenal,” Leslie reminded as they ran back for cover.

“Mary! Disable that gun truck!” Jessica ordered as they rushed back.

Mary complied and rushed to cover. She attempted to lock onto the militant who’d been firing the artillery, but he’d ducked out of range to reload. She then saw her opportunity as the truck began to move forward. Taking aim, she fired a single shot at the truck’s left front tire, deflating it and causing the truck to jolt. The RPG soldier was caught off guard from the jolt, accidently firing an RPG up into the air, which thankfully didn’t hit anywhere near the unit or its convoy.

Jessica, meanwhile, located Jackie and somersaulted over to her to evade enemy fire. She found Jackie taking care of Anna, who lay their, whining and groaning in agony.

“What happened?” Jessica asked.

“We were forced to evacuate our position when those bastards targeted us,” Jackie said, “She was the last one over the balcony and was thrown from it when the shell hit.”

“Kay I’m running low!” Julia yelled as she ran short of clips.

“Here, load up!” Kay called back, tossing a clip to her.

As Jessica helped Anna sit up, Anna spoke in a fairly weak tone, “Lieutenant Colonel, Master Sergeant, you gotta get the rest of those civilians out of here.”

Jessica faced Anna directly, looking into her hazel eyes and replied, “I’m not leaving you Private.”

“Lieutenant Colonel, I’m a dead girl, you gotta let me go,” Anna pleaded, but Jessica, somewhat growling, responded, “Private I am not leaving you.”

Anna lost her patience and started yelling to Jessica “You gotta get them outta here!” while Jessica yelled back “No I’m not leaving you!” The argument kept on for about six seconds before Jessica finished up her argument with, “NO! Over my dead body!”

The two girls froze, eyes locked on each others. That last statement had struck an idea to Anna’s mind.

“I can stop the RPG’s Lieutenant Colonel,” Anna wheezed.

Jessica hesitated before replying simply, “How?”

“I know about the charged explosives you laid in the car,” Anna said, “If I can draw the enemy towards me and the location you laid the explosives, I’ll be able to detonate them myself and kill them all.”

“You’ll die though, Anna,” Jessica replied, a dreadfully concerned look showing on her face.

“Lieutenant Colonel, I’m as good as dead,” Anna confessed, “If those RPG’s get any closer to us, you, your whole unit, and all those civilians will be slayed. My life for almost sixty or seventy others; I’ll take that risk. Please, you gotta let me go.”

Anna then gently removed the silver U.S. Army dog tag around her neck and handed it to Jessica.

“Keep this,” Anna insisted, “So you won’t forget me, okay?”

Jessica, her eyes glassy and wide, clutched the dog tag’s necklace hard, then finally nodded, adding “Alright Anna,” before departing with Jackie back to cover with several other soldiers. As she watched them go, Anna gave a weak but triumphant smile, adding, “I’ll always be by your side, Jessica,” then growled and wheezed as she struggled to stand up and rushed to cover across the street.

“Cover me!” Jessica yelled as an RPG flew over her and Jackie and exploded in the distance.

Jessica and Jackie slid behind cover near the evacuation route, where Lilly was tending to Carla’s wound. Anna, meanwhile, limped over behind the car where Jessica and Leslie had laid the explosives earlier. By this time, the gun truck was just barely within range of the explosives, and Anna, rubbing her bruised and scraped hands together, muttered, “Here you go, Anna.” When the truck pulled to halt conveniently right next to the car bomb, Anna rushed behind the militants and slid under the truck. She then pulled out a radio, and transmitted a last message to Jessica and the rest of Unit Comet.

“This is Private First Class Anna Summers,” Anna said, “RECON Battalion force Unit Comet. Remember Me!”

She then tossed the radio out from under the truck, where a militant noticed the ditched radio and bent down to see her hidden under the truck. He was beginning to say something in surprise when Anna pulled out a grenade from her belt and snarled “Sayanora , b*****’s”, then drew her pistol and fired it into the grenade with an agonized, “Hllg!”

Jessica shut her eyes and ducked as the gun truck was thrown into the air from a volcanic orange blast below. The explosion also managed to set off the explosives in the car, which erupted in it’s own volcanic explosion, consuming the rest of the truck and the remaining militants. A white draft of smoke washed over the whole street, and Jessica and several soldiers and civilians coughed repetitively as they recovered from being thrown to the ground by the blast.

When Jessica recovered, all she saw was a sea of flames ahead of the convoy. The heat seared the air at a painful temperature, but it felt worse on Jessica as she struggled with the realization that she’d lost two more soldiers from this attack. She walked forward a ways with some of the soldiers in tow behind her. She couldn’t even see the bodies of the militants; they’d been completely consumed by the blast.

“Anna and Luisa….gone,” Jessica muttered in her mind, tears streaming down her face. She looked at Anna’s dog tag, the pain ripping at her chest. She then kicked at some shrapnel with an anguished scream of anger, but Hailey caught her before she could vent her anger any further. Jessica cried and cried into Hailey’s shoulder, and Hailey herself felt tears in her eyes. However, she moved that pain aside and did her best to bring Jessica back to her senses.

“Jessica,” Hailey said, looking her in the eyes, “Please come back. We still have civilians to escort to safehouse echo. Please.”

Through the streams of tears in her eyes, Jessica nodded and added, “Jackie, rally our unit. Get the civilians back onto the trucks and get as many of our soldiers in the jeeps. Anyone who can’t fit into a jeep will be stationed with the civilians.”

“Yes, Jesse,” Jackie replied obediently, then turned and called out, “You heard the Lieutenant Colonel! In the jeeps, on the double. Move!”

Jessica paced around the perimeter later that night. Although she’d worked hard to get over the painful loss, she still felt sick in the stomach. And it wasn’t much of a queasy feeling either; it was more or less like her stomach was being compressed excruciatingly.

“Face facts, Jessica,” she mumbled to herself, “Hailey is still with you. Jackie’s still here. And most importantly, John’s still here.”

Mentioning John to herself, although it made her a bit reassured, also made her worried. John and Unit Hawkeye, once again, had been assigned on night watch on the east end of the town. Given the fact that the last attack from that camp alone had outnumbered them and had also managed to deal some damage to Unit Comet, Jessica didn’t like the idea of John and his unit being put out on their own like that again.

Her anxiety only worsened when she started hearing a frantic commotion in the courtyard, just nearby the base’s main gate. Arriving there, she saw Unit Guardian hurrying onto the jeeps and armored vehicles in the garage. From the way they were behaving, Jessica assumed that they were going out to counter a threat, and she had a rough idea of just what that threat might be.

She located Unit Guardian’s commander, a broad-shouldered Platoon Sergeant who was yelling repetitively to his unit “Move move move!”

“Sarge, what’s going on?” Jessica asked, running up to him.

“Unit Hawkeye was ambushed Lieutenant Colonel!” the Platoon Sergeant said, and Jessica’s heart plummeted deep into her gut, “Most of the unit has been captured and taken hostage by an assault force from the east! We’re moving in to replace the open section in the town!”

Jessica didn’t wait to hear the rest as she dashed over to General McCoy’s office. As she ran through the hallway to the office, she saw base officials frantically working inside one of the nearby command rooms. Assuming McCoy to be in there, Jessica entered. He wasn’t there, but she could tell that most of the commanders in there seemed just as frantic as she was.

“Lieutenant Colonel, do require something?” one of the officials asked.

“Yes,” Jessica blurted out, almost without thinking. Then with a little more thought, she added, “A rescue mission.”

Some of the commanders paused, a few giving her some surprised glances, as though she’d just said the most outrageous thing a commander could say.

“Lieutenant Colonel, we can’t do that,” one of the officials said, “We don’t have the manpower for a rescue operation.”

“You sure as h*** do,” Jessica said, trying quite unsuccessfully to keep her cool, “Unit Comet.”

“Lieutenant Colonel, at this point, we’re down to one last available battalion force,” one of the other officials replied, “Your unit is that last resort.”

“The risk is too great,” another one replied, “You must remain on standby in case of further need of manpower. We’ll consider your request, but we can’t perform a rescue operation now.”

Now all of Jessica’s emotion erupted in her veins. She kicked one of the nearby garbage bins with a loud BANG, leaving a large dent in it and silencing the frantic chatter in the room.

“G.D.!” she shouted, “If you won’t send a rescue mission for Unit Hawkeye, then I’ll deal with it myself!”

She stormed out of the room before any of the base officials could stop her. She turned and continued on her original course to General McCoy’s office. Surely, he’d understand her point and authorize a rescue mission, even if it required throwing herself out there with just a few marines and not her whole unit. She entered the room as McCoy finished making a call on one of the phones, saluting as she arrived.

“Lieutenant Colonel,” McCoy replied, saluting back, then noticed her stressful state, “Is there something you wish to ask of me?”

Knowing that she was talking to the superior of RECON, Jessica did her best to change her mood and address McCoy in the proper manner.

“Sir, I am requesting that I be sent out with Unit Comet on a rescue mission to retrieve Unit Hawkeye from the enemy camp,” Jessica said, “The rest of RECON command is unwilling to do it because they fear that we don’t have enough manpower to perform the request.”

McCoy looked at Jessica solemnly. His first intention was to allow Jessica to go, knowing that she was a perfectly capable commander. But he knew that RECON command at least had a valid point. Therefore, he went on to issue his response.

“Lieutenant Colonel, I appreciate your intent to rescue fellow soldiers,” McCoy went on, “And I initially would authorize it. However, RECON command is right. More importantly than protecting the town is also protecting this base from attack. Against insurgents, our base security militia may be capable. But against a whole Islamist attack force, they’d be quickly overrun. Jessica, I regret to say that your unit will have to remain on the premises.”

Jessica eyes stared at him, and McCoy could just start feeling them purge his body emotionally. But he had a lot more responsibilities than Jessica, and continued on.

“Consider this too, Lieutenant Colonel,” McCoy added, “The Taliban may be expecting an rescue mission to retrieve the hostages. There’d be no telling what you’d be met with when you arrive. For all you know, the damage dealt to your unit could be worse than the ambush your unit was met with last night. For your unit’s safety, Lieutenant Colonel, this is another reason I cannot let your unit go.”

Seeing that McCoy wasn’t thinking otherwise, Jessica gave a solemn salute and headed out the door. When she exited into the night air, she looked out in the direction of the town. Already, Unit Guardian’s convoy was at least a mile away, their vehicle’s headlights just barely showing.

Tears were rushing like streams down Jessica’s face, somewhat fogging her view and clogging her breath with an unpleasant saltiness. Then with a rush of emotion, Jessica thrust out her arms and unleashed a frustrated scream. Never in all her life, her service term least of all, had she been met with such betrayal. RECON betrayed her, it’s commanders betrayed her, and General McCoy, the base superior whom she’d come to respect personally as well as professionally, had nonetheless betrayed her as well. She threw herself against the perimeter fence, hitting her head against it repetitively and crying and sobbing her pain out. John, her nearest chance at love, captured, possibly even dead. Why? Why was she not permitted to rescue him and his unit.

Why?

Yes why exactly? She was a Lieutenant Colonel now, and thus a base superior herself more or less. She was capable enough of making her own decisions.

“Alright, General,” she whispered most savagely to herself, her eyes almost glowing with fire, “If you won’t authorize a rescue operation, then I’ll do it. Strip me of my rank, strip me of my honor, but you won’t strip me of my loyalty. My loyalty to fellow soldiers and to my country. I will not let the same thing happen to John as to what happened to Anna, Luisa, Lucy, or Sally.”

She rushed to her barrack, where she saw Hailey walking around on the porch in uniform.

“Jessica, I heard about Unit Hawkeye...” Hailey started to say, but Jessica rushed right past her before she could finish. Following her inside, she saw Jessica pulling her pack together and clipping on her helmet.

“Jessica, what is all this about?” Hailey demanded, completely unprepared for this.

“We’re going out on a rescue operation,” Jessica said.

“For Unit Hawkeye?” Hailey replied quizzically, “Did General McCoy authorize it?”

“Screw that,” Jessica replied, “We’re getting them back regardless.”

Hailey was astonished. This was certainly not like Jessica. Jessica always respected General McCoy’s decisions. Almost nothing exceeded that. If Jessica was acting like this, it probably meant she was about to carry out an operation or task that was against orders.

“You mean to tell me that you’re disobeying orders and going out after Unit Hawkeye?” Hailey confirmed.

“Must I be anymore specific?” Jessica asked with an obvious tone.

“Jessica,” Hailey tried to insist, “I know that the lives of Unit Hawkeye’s soldiers may be in jeopardy, but with the current predicament, we can’t do a thing about it.”

“That’s what RECON command told me, and that’s what General McCoy told me,” Jessica said, slamming her fist into the drawer before shooting a frightening glare at Hailey, “Like h*** am I conceding to that.”

Hailey would have to put on her more forceful tone with Jessica. She grabbed Jessica by the wrists and locked her eyes onto hers.

“Alright, Jessica, let’s go there then,” Hailey said, somewhat at a growl, her eyes dead strict, “I assume your doing this because of Anna, right?”

“What do you mean?” Jessica responded.

“Dammit Jessica, you know what I mean,” Hailey hissed, cringing in annoyance, “I may not have been there, but I know that you were unwilling to leave Anna behind, even though she saved countless lives during that assault by blowing up the enemy unit. I assume that you can’t bear to lose more soldiers.”

Jessica just stood there, breathing slowly with emotion.

“Jessica, they’re not even part of our unit,” Hailey tried to insist, “If you’re unwilling to leave a soldier behind, that’s understandable. But to make a sacrifice so risky that it may not only cost us our lives, but our ranks and our status, is f**** ridiculous. There must be some other reason you are desperate to retrieve these men.”

Jessica narrowed her eyes, but not challengingly. Hailey could see that she was trying to not to cry as she saw tears building up in her eyes and her lip trembling.

“Jessica, if there’s something that’s motivating you to make such a risky sacrifice,” Hailey prodded, “Please tell me. I’m your closest friend, and cross my heart, if it is something that is personal, then I will not tell a single soul without your okay. I swear on my mother’s name.”

Slowly, Hailey released Jessica’s wrists as she waited for a response. Jessica bent her head down briefly, trying to consider how to convey her true feelings to Hailey. After ten seconds or so, she finally found the strength to say it.

“Unit Hawkeye’s second-in-command, John Mitchell,” Jessica said slowly, “I’m in love with him. I also made a promise to save his unit if they were ever in trouble.”

She then looked Hailey straight in the eye, returning that deadly strict stare that Hailey had given her earlier before continuing.

“Do you remember when Unit Hawkeye was under attack last night, and we went out to protect them?” Jessica asked, “Although we were under orders to do it, I would have done it even if McCoy hadn’t authorized us to go. And do you remember when we were cut off in that receiving lane, our whole unit pinned down by enemy fire? If John hadn’t arrived with that rescue squad, we would have been finished. All of that was because we promised to reinforce and help each other if we were in trouble. This circumstance should be no exception, and if that’s not reason enough, then I don’t know what the h*** is.”

Hailey just stood there, trying to take all this in. Jessica then added, “Unit Guardian has been sent out to reinforce the open flank that Unit Hawkeye was previously guarding. If we push our strength hard enough, we can crush that enemy camp on the east. And if General McCoy is worried of an attack on this base, then let him consider this: does the enemy know how many other units we have stationed here. For all they know, there could be three or so other units here plus our security militia.”

Hailey continued to take all this in, but she finally reached a verdict in her mind. Very slowly, Jessica could see a sly grin begin to touch Hailey’s lips, her eyes narrowing in eagerness.

“Alright Lieutenant Colonel Allison,” Hailey replied, giving a playful shove to Jessica’s shoulder, “Let’s do it.”

Jessica hugged Hailey, muttering “Thanks Hailey.”

She then added, “So that McCoy doesn’t get too suspicious, however, I don’t intend to take all of the unit. He’s right about one thing, we could be ambushed during the operation, and the results may be worse than last night. The last thing I want is to lose my whole unit. More importantly, if we still have some of the unit on the premises, then McCoy won’t assume that the whole unit has vacated the base. Gather up whoever is willing to go and have them meet me in the outdoor gym at our warm-up space in ten minutes.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Hailey said, “You go get your gear on in the meantime.”

Jessica and Hailey hugged one last time, then departed in opposite directions, Jessica for the locker rooms while Hailey went to gather up the squad.

“Hang in there, John,” Jessica mused to herself as she pulled her gear together in the locker room, “I’m coming. Don’t die on me yet. Hang in there, please.”

When Jessica arrived in the court she waited patiently as the extraction squad Hailey gathered together arrived. As they filed in, Jessica began to get worried as she saw a large number of her soldiers showing up. By the time the soldiers arrived, Jessica was stunned to see that her whole unit, in uniform and fully equipped, were present, not just a small squad like she’d hoped. She turned to Hailey as she came up right next to her.

“Hailey, I told you to gather up just a small squad,” Jessica protested, “Not the whole unit.”

“I tried,” Hailey countered, “But none of them were willing to stay behind.”

Jessica looked at her whole unit, in formation and ready for battle, the lighting from the large pedestal lights in the outdoor gym glowing reflectively off their uniforms. Slowly, Jessica addressed her unit.

“Not all of you have to go, you know,” Jessica said, “I only need a small squad to help me extract Unit Hawkeye.”

She was stunned by the responses she received. Jackie first stepped up, her face strict and furious.

“I have made alliances and truces with you ever since boot camp, Lieutenant Colonel,” Jackie said, spitting on the ground to her left, “I’m not f***** backing down now. You’re stuck with me at this point.”

“If you think you’re going into battle without a medic, Lieutenant Colonel” Lisa added, “You’re bloody wrong.”

“If she’s going,” replied Betty, who was dressed in her army medic uniform, boots and all, “Then I’m going with.”

“You’ll need the eyes of a hawk to pick off the enemy soldiers,” Mary chimed in, “I can give you that.”

“We may be secret agents,” Penny added, “But we’re also loyal fighters. We will stand by you and fight with you.”

“That’s a guarantee,” Lucile agreed, holding her sister’s hand, her dark black hair showing in the light.

“You’ll need a driver,” Cammy said, “And one who can fight well too.”

“I’m not backing down either,” Trisha said, “Carlos would’ve wanted me to fight by your side, regardless of the circumstances.”

Jessica was astonished. Her whole unit, even the new recruits and those who’d been seriously injured in last night’s ambush, were willing to throw their lives on the line, against even more serious circumstances. More importantly, they were willing to risk their careers for an operation that wasn’t even authorized by the base superior. But there was no way Jessica could deter them now.

“Alright,” Jessica said, but wanted to make sure the point got around to everyone, “If you decide to go, that is completely by your own choice. Because we are the last available battalion force that can defend RECON from an attack, General McCoy has asked us to stay on the premises. However, I personally am unwilling to leave soldiers, much less a whole unit, to die or suffer at the enemy’s hands.”

She paused, trying to put more of her words together, “It is very likely that, because we are doing this against orders, we may be considered AWOL. If you go with me, you risk not only your lives, but your ranks, your position in the armed forces, and quite possibly...your honor. Again, if you chose to go, that’s your decision. If you are all willing to rescue Unit Hawkeye at such an expense, then you may stay. ”

As expected, none of her unit moved. Jessica decided to add one last thing to motivate her troops.

“During this mission,” Jessica said, “Not only are we going to rescue Unit Hawkeye, but we want to show those militants what we are capable of. If we get the chance, we are going to smash their camp. We’re going to repeat the message to them that as Americans, if you come after us...We come after you!”

At this, she held her rifle up and yelled, “Who’s with me!?”

The rest of Unit Comet responded by holding their rifles up as well and cheering loudly.

“Who are we!?” Jessica called out.

“Unit Comet!!”

“WHO ARE WE!!?”

“UNIT COMET!!!”

“Cammy, can you find us spare jeeps?” Jessica requested.

“Yes ma’am,” Cammy replied enthusiastically, “Will you also require any assault vehicles?”

“No,” Jessica replied, “We want to ambush the enemy camp just like they ambushed us last night. Heavy artillery will easily give us away.”

“Understood,” Cammy replied.

“Grab us some wheels, Private!” Jessica ordered, then to the rest of the unit, “Follow up behind Cammy and get into the jeeps. If you can’t find space, make space!”

Her unit jogged out of the court right behind Cammy, with Jessica and Hailey at the rear. When they got to the jeep garage, there were still plenty of jeeps available. Each jeep held at least seven soldiers, one at the wheel, one in the adjacent seat, four in the back, and one in the gunner’s nest. Jessica took the lead jeep with Hailey at the wheel and Jackie in the gunner’s nest. They halted briefly at the perimeter gate, where Jessica typed an exit code in to open. The gate’s motors whined as it opened horizontally while Jessica got back into the jeep. Quickly, they drove out with almost a dozen other jeeps behind them, with the gate closing after the last jeep passed through it.

As they rumbled and bounced across the dark desert terrain, Jessica rummaged in her backpack, retrieving the photo of she and Alicia.

“Alicia,” she muttered quietly, “I must make this sacrifice. Please forgive me if I die doing it.”

She quietly inhaled a slow deep breath and gently kissed the photo before putting it back into her backpack.

As the last jeep got almost thirty yards away from the perimeter, General McCoy, who’d been notified of the mass exit, arrived by the perimeter. He could only guess who was leaving; Unit Comet. However, instead of feeling anger like he should’ve for Jessica’s disobedience, he felt conflicted. A small part of his mind was telling him, “You should have let her go in the first place, Robert. No matter the risk, you can’t leave a whole unit behind for your own safety.”

As he watched the taillights of the last jeep vanish, a smile appeared on his lips.

“Go get ‘em, Lieutenant Colonel,” he muttered, “Show ‘em what a true American soldier can do.”

As the convoy approached the town, Jessica directed Hailey to the closest and safest place to park the jeeps. She also told her what the plan was to retrieve Unit Hawkeye and wipe out the enemy.

“Jackie and I will go in first by ourselves,” Jessica informed, “We’ll try to extract John, Dale and any other soldiers we can accompany. If all goes well, we’ll locate Captain Marshall and I’ll send you his location. You and another soldier or squad will go in and extract him.”

“And once we get the hostages extracted safely, then what?” Hailey asked.

“Form a rifle line surrounding their camp and fire upon the enemies inside,” Jessica said, “Since their camp is located in between a few sand dunes, that will give us plenty of cover.”

“We’ll need a distraction to cover for the extraction, though,” Hailey advised.

“Leslie and Bravo Company will drop some grenades in various areas about ten yards beyond the camp,” Jessica said, “The explosions will make the enemies assume that we are launching a frontal assault on the camp when we are in fact behind them.”

They pulled up by the outer edge of the east end of the town, where the unit got out and trekked the remainder of the way to the camp on foot. When they got to the enemy camp, Jessica, Hailey, Jackie, and Leslie grouped together and peered over the sand dune nearest to them. As hoped, this one faced the back of the camp. There were lines of tents, most of which were for the militants, but some for other purposes. Through some available lighting in the camp, Jessica noticed a few tents with guards posted by them. These, supposedly, were where Unit Hawkeye’s soldiers were being held. Jessica whispered her plan to Leslie and quietly ordered her to take Bravo Company to the right flank to lay the grenades. Over her helmet mic, Leslie called together her company and relayed the plan.

Quickly, Leslie departed and merged with her company and led them ten yards ahead of the camp. After finding a good position, Leslie pulled a grenade from her belt and held it up to her unit as an order for them to pull one or two out themselves. Leslie and her unit took turns priming grenades and hurling them to a position nearby the camp. The first several explosions caused a series of yelling to come from the camp and Bravo Company quickly fled to a different position as militants began to hurry in the direction of the blasts.

With the majority of the camp distracted by the explosions, Jessica and Jackie seized the opportunity. Edging over the sand dune, Jessica slowly slid down the other side of the dune, keeping one leg outstretched to add some friction and avoid sliding too quickly. When they finally reached the bottom, Jessica and Jackie located the closest guarded tent and moved with silent footsteps up to the camp.

“Let’s take out the guards first,” Jessica advised, “And hide the bodies somewhere so that any returning militants won’t suspect us.”

Jackie nodded and drew her knife. The two girls got onto either side of the tent, and with a nod from Jessica, quickly and silently advanced on the guards. Jessica pistol-whipped one in the back of the head while Jackie grabbed the other guard, holding him by the mouth as she plugged her knife into his back. Jessica and Jackie quickly dragged the bodies behind the tent just as Jessica heard voices inside the tent.

“Did you hear that?” a voice asked, “Sounds like a rescue operation has come after all.”

“See, I told you a rescue operation would come,” said a voice that Jessica recognized as John’s. Edging up to the back of the tent, Jessica whispered, “John. Is that you? It’s Jessica.”

“Jesse,” John rasped relieved, “You came.”

“I sure wasn’t going to leave you for dead,” Jessica replied, then added, “Get away from the tent wall at the back, I’m going to cut through it and give you guys an escape route.”

“Got it,” John replied and Jessica heard some jostling inside as he and several other soldiers moved to get away from the tent wall. Jessica then slowly drew her combat knife and, when she was sure that no one was on the other side, jabbed it through the tent’s fabric. Jessica slowly pulled the knife down, ripping a large tear straight down the middle. When she finally made a hole that was wide enough for a human to travel through, Jessica stuck her head inside.

“Hey Jesse,” John said, giving a rather weak smile, “Welcome to the party.”

“Hey,” Jessica said, giving him a reassured smile. She saw that John, Dale and a few other soldiers from Unit Hawkeye had their hands bound but they were otherwise unrestrained. Jessica helped John out first, carefully cutting away the ropes on his wrists with her knife before continuing to help Dale and few other soldiers out of the tent. When all were out of the tent, Jessica whispered to John and Dale about their predicament.

“We’ve got cover fire surrounding the whole camp,” Jessica mused, “We’re sending extraction squads in one at a time to retrieve groups of the unit. Where’s Captain Marshall?”

“They put him and three other soldiers in a tent three rows down from here,” John said, pointing to an approximate location as to where he thought Marshall was.

“Alright, I’ll send Hailey and a squad to that location to retrieve him,” Jessica said, then looking at Jackie, added, “Alright, let’s hurry up the dune before the militants get back. They may be getting fed up with our trick by this time.”

They started racing up the dune, digging their toes in for extra thrust. Just as they got halfway up the dune, however, Jessica heard a yell, and it was close. Turning, she saw a lone militant, pointing right at her and yelling an alert in arabic. Jessica was just beginning to draw her pistol when she saw multiple other militants coming up behind him.

“Oh damn,” Jessica swore, then yelled, “GET DOWN!”

Reversing the way she came, Jessica quickly slid back down the dune, grabbing John by the leg and pulling him with her as gunfire began to sound and the sand began to explode with dozens of miniature bursts.

“Hailey, Hailey!” Jessica called through her helmet comm, “Cover blown! Repeat, our cover is blown! Issue the rifle order!”

“Yes ma’am!” Hailey replied back over the intercom and dispatched the order to everyone else. Immediately, flashes appeared all along the hillsides as Unit Comet’s soldiers opened up on the camp, killing off or forcing militants to flee to safer cover. With the way up a little safer now, Jessica took John’s hand and rushed back up the dune. When they got to the top, Jessica yanked John over the edge of the dune before throwing herself behind cover as Jackie, Dale, and the rest of the group jumped over for cover.

“Hailey!” Jessica called out, “Take a squad and go down into the camp and search the tent at three o’clock!” motioning to the tent that John had just pointed to. Hailey called together Trisha, Lisa, Natalia, Natalie, and Victoria to follow her down the dune to the campsite while Jessica and Jackie pulled out their rifles and took up firing positions on the camp ground.

Hailey rushed at the front of the group, almost stumbling and collapsing as the gravitational pull from the steep slope of the dune yanked at her legs. They took up position by one tent, and she and Trisha gunned down a Taliban soldier who’d taken cover behind an equipment stack across from their cover. With the way clear, Hailey and her squad rushed alongside the tents to avoid accidentally getting hit by friendly fire. They finally made it to the tent Jessica had instructed Hailey to search, and Hailey carefully pulled open flap and checked inside. There was Corporal Marshall and at least four other soldiers, hands bound inside. Hailey and her unit dashed inside, drawing their knives and cutting the soldiers free of their restraints.

Meanwhile, Jessica ordered Jackie to grab another group of soldiers and rush back in to retrieve the soldiers from the last couple tents. Jackie took Carla, Angela, Alyssa, Amanda, and Cammy down the dune, where they split up, Jackie leading Angela and Cammy while Carla led Amanda and Alyssa to the other tent. Hailey’s group, meanwhile, ducked by and rushed back up the dune with her squad, Marshall, and their freed hostages in tow.

“Where’re your weapons?” Jessica asked.

“Eleven o’clock, by the enemy’s own ammunition stockpile,” John replied, pointing to a tent with ammunition boxes on both sides of it.

“Okay, Melissa, Helen, cover me,” Jessica yelled, flipping back over the dune and sliding back into the camp as Carla’s group and some more of Unit Hawkeye rushed back up the dune to cover. One of the fleeing soldiers cried out in pain as he was struck in the back by a shot, and he fell backward and slid down the dune back to the ground. Jessica located the soldier responsible for the shot and blasted him with her rifle before he could take out anyone else in Carla’s group. Melissa and Helen kept their rifles at the ready while Jessica rushed ahead to the tent where Unit Hawkeye’s arms were being stored. Ducking inside the tent, Jessica retrieved several assault rifles, defensive pistols, and combat knives. She grabbed some bags on the side of the tent that she stuffed the lot into, slinging one over her back and handing two other bags to Melissa and Helen. Taking an alternate route, they rushed back up the dune and over the edge before anyone noticed them. Jessica located Julia and gathered Trisha, Alyssa, and Rachel together.

“You girls got any spare explosives on you?” Jessica asked.

“H*** yeah, Lieutenant Colonel,” Rachel replied, holding out a grenade.

“Rachel, target the ammunition stock in front of us,” Jessica said, then turning to Trisha, “Trisha, blow up their supply tent. Alyssa, you go for the command tent. Julia, cover them.”

The three insurgents rushed off to cover as Rachel pulled the pin on her grenade and threw it toward the ammo tent. Jessica then pushed Rachel down behind the hill as the blast consumed the ammo stockpile, setting several nearby tents on fire in a split second. Momentarily, the supply tent and the command tent were also blown to bits or burned to the ground as Trisha and Alyssa threw their own grenades. With the gunfire beginning to subside, Jessica called through the intercom “Unit Comet, mission complete, repeat mission complete! Fall back to the convoy now!”

The gunfire slowly silenced and Unit Comet and Unit Hawkeye moved away from their cover and slid or ran down the hill back to the jeeps.

“Hailey, make sure that there’s enough standing or kneeling space in each jeep to take at least two or three of Unit Hawkeye’s soldiers,” Jessica ordered as they approached their parked convoy. John and Dale got in the back, weaving into the narrow aisle in between the seats as some of Unit Comet’s soldiers took some seating. Jackie and Lucile gave up their seats to John and Dale, crouching a bit on the jeep’s bay floor.”

“Alright,” Jessica added, hopping in the front seat and igniting the engine, “Let’s go home to RECON.”

“And let’s hope they’ll let us back in,” Hailey mused, “McCoy will probably be furious with us.”

As they moved back, Jessica and Hailey gently debated about what to do when they got back.

“Who’s going to take the blame?” Hailey said, “I should take some of it at least. I can tell him that I let my guard down and followed you without double checking.”

“No,” Jessica replied with a slow exhale, “I’ll take it all. It was my idea, my plan, and my passionate feelings. You only assisted me because you’re a loyal friend. Friends stand up for each other and they support each other.”

“But you’ve got the most to lose,” Hailey pointed out, indicating to the ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ armband on Jessica’s left arm.

“If I have to lose that for saving American soldiers, then that’s a price I’ll have to pay,” Jessica said.

When they finally got back to RECON, they were met by the security team and the base superiors, except for McCoy. When the majority of Unit Hawkeye got out of the jeeps behind Unit Comet, some of the base personnel couldn’t help cheering for Unit Comet’s success. Jessica’s heart rose with pleasure at this, and then she let it drop a bit as she reminded herself, “You have an appointment, Lieutenant Colonel. Off to McCoy’s office with you.” With that, Jessica turned on her heel and marched to General McCoy’s office. Hailey and Jackie watched her go and looked at each other.

“Oh I hope it goes well,” Hailey mused, crossing her fingers.

“I say we go vouch for her,” Jackie replied, “If the General wants to relieve Jessica of her command, he’ll have to relieve us too.”

“No, let her take care of it herself,” Hailey admitted, gently putting a hand on Jackie’s shoulder, “She’s been through worse than this. She can handle it.”

Jessica walked through the white hallway leading to McCoy’s office, her footsteps bouncing off the walls and being the only fateful sound she heard as she approached the office door. Jessica knocked on the door, followed by McCoy’s voice saying, “It’s open.”

Jessica entered and stood at attention.

“Jessica,” McCoy said, giving her an expressionless stare and standing up.

Jessica closed her eyes briefly, repeating inside her head, “Keep calm, Jessica, keep calm.”

McCoy came around his desk and leaned against it, facing Jessica with that still unchanging expression.

“Do have anything to say, young lady?” he asked.

Jessica thought a while, then with a deep breath, replied, “I had to make a choice, General. Was I going to lose my rank for doing an honorary duty to save American soldiers, or was I going to let the fact that I left a whole unit for dead remain of my conscience? I decided that I would rather give up my service record and my honor to save American lives.”

McCoy remained unmoving, didn’t even respond, although Jessica assumed he’d heard her. Slowly, Jessica reached for the armband, undoing it and removing it from her left arm. She then held it out to General McCoy and replied, “If I have committed an act of treason or disobedience, then I hereby relinquish my rank…”

However, at this point, General McCoy interrupted her with a slightly exhausted “Shut up, Lieutenant Colonel.”

Jessica raised her eyebrows at this, but she kept the armband held out as she waited for McCoy’s next reply.

“You’re right, Jessica,” McCoy replied, “You were right. I was such a G.D. fool to restrain you and your unit. As a soldier of the United States Armed Forces, I knew that you had greater responsibilities on your mind than to protect a single U.S. outpost in an otherwise hostile region. It’s true that the lives of soldiers mean a lot to you. Since the Taliban first started attempting to retrieve the town, you’ve been through a lot. You lost four soldiers, many more of your soldiers suffered a lot of injuries in the battles that followed, and you most of all were put in the most perilous of circumstances. Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel, I owe you an apology.”

“None required sir,” Jessica replied, trying to make McCoy not feel so bad, but McCoy held up his hand and insisted, “Yes, Jessica, I owe it you for trying to keep you from saving the lives of a whole U.S. reconnaissance unit. I should have prioritized that over RECON’s safety. Besides, the enemy is more interested in retrieving and rebuilding their stronghold than capturing our base. Not only that, but your efforts also crushed the enemy force on the east end of the town, which reduced the threat level by a little less than halfway. We’re in the process of calling back the majority of Unit Guardian since that area is no longer in imminent danger.”

McCoy then paused and added that gentle smile of his.

“Jessica, ever since you first came to this base, I’ve always admired your skills, your courage, your leadership, everything about you. Because you have worked so hard to keep this base and, more importantly, the lives of countless civilians in that town safe from those Islamist Extremists, you deserve more honor than I personally can grant you.”

Jessica was smiling now, sniffling to try and keep back tears of happiness and appreciation. McCoy grabbed a tissue from his desk and held it out to her, which she took gently and dabbed her eyes with. He then held out his arms, welcoming a hug. Jessica hugged him hard, feeling soothed by his presence now.

“Alright, Lieutenant Colonel,” McCoy added, “I believe you are in need of some rest.”

However, before he could dismiss Jessica, one of the command phones rang. Quickly, McCoy picked up the phone and engaged in conversation with the person on the other end of the line. His face grew pale as he heard a frantic report issued by his friend and colleague, General Ryan Hicks of Unit Eagle.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” McCoy replied after about a few minutes of conversation and put down the receiver and faced Jessica.

“I think I may have another mission for you, Lieutenant Colonel. If you’re willing to save more American soldiers, then you’d better get your unit assembled again. Unit Eagle is under attack from west end of the town. It sounds like the west camp is swarming in large numbers. Reinforcements arriving by the minute.”

“I’ll do what I must, General,” Jessica said, strapping her ‘Lieutenant Major’ armband back on and saluting, “I have served by General Ryan before, and I shall serve by him again. That is a guarantee.”

“Alright,” McCoy replied, “Get your unit back on those jeeps and head for the town ASAP. Dismissed.”

Jessica quickly saluted again and rushed off down the hallway back to the courtyard. She almost literally broke through the doors and rushed out to the courtyard to find Hailey and the rest of Unit Comet standing at attention.

“What happened, Jessica?” Hailey asked.

“There’ll be time for that later,” Jessica replied, “Unit Eagle is under attack on the west end of the town. We need to get back out there to reinforce them because any minute now, they could be overwhelmed.”

“I’d like to question that,” Hailey said, but added a smile and replied, “But seeing as you still have your armband on, I’m in no position to do so.”

Turning to the rest of Unit Comet, Hailey yelled, “Girls, we have another mission on our hands. We’re going back to the town to reinforce Unit Eagle. I don’t care if your sleep-ridden, get back in those jeeps now. Move move!”

“Yes ma’am!” the girls replied with absolute obedience and rushed back to their jeeps. As Jessica made her way to the jeeps, she heard additional boots pounding the ground behind her. Turning, she saw John, Dale, the remaining GRS soldiers and some three or so regular marines from Unit Hawkeye running up to her.

“We’re coming with, Lieutenant Colonel,” John said, rifle in hand.

“John, you’ve just been through h***,” Jessica insisted, “Please remain back here and rest.”

“I hate to ignore your orders, Lieutenant Colonel,” John said, “But we’re not going anywhere except with you.”

He then got up closer and added, “Remember our promise.”

Jessica looked him in the eye, trying to decide if she should deny the request or if she should let him go with. Finally, she decided and with a smile of reassurance added, “Alright, John, you’re comin’ with. Grab your jeep and get in formation with us on the double.”

“Yes ma’am,” John replied, ordering his squad to move out.

As the convoy approached the town, they could see continuous white flashes of rifles going off as well as an occasional explosion or two just twenty or thirty yards away from the west end of the town. Jessica, with her jeep in the lead, gave directions to her convoy and guiding them into the town quickly and safely. Jessica finally found a whole cluster or jeeps parked by a series of apartments, supposedly belonging to Unit Eagle.

“Let’s go! We gotta hurry!” Jessica yelled at the top of her lungs as she and multiple soldiers quickly unloaded from the jeeps, clicking their rifles in place and dashing up inside the building after Jessica. After weaving through a few corridors, they found some of Unit Eagle’s soldiers, who directed them to the upper floors where the majority of the unit was stationed. They finally reached a series of fairly large rooms with several soldiers stationed in each. Jessica divided her unit up and dispatched them to each of the rooms before continuing to the one where General Ryan himself was. When they arrived, General Ryan turned to meet Jessica.

“Lieutenant Colonel, thank you for coming to support us,” Ryan said, saluting to Jessica and adding a firm handshake.

Inside also were Corporal Harris Montgomery and Sergeant Nicholas Carter, who were helping to supervise the battle. Immediately when she locked eyes with Harris, Nicole exclaimed “Harry!” rushing forward and giving him a hard hug.

“Hey Nicole, I’m glad you’re still here,” Harris replied, kissing her briefly.

“You too,” Nicole whispered passionately.

“What’s the situation General?” Jessica asked.

“Well right now the enemy is pulling back,” Ryan replied, taking some binoculars and observing from a safe distance, “But they’re sure to return in probably less than an hour. We needed reinforcements to hold them back in case they returned with harder firepower.”

He then saw John and questioned, “I thought the Sergeant here was back at RECON. What’s he still doing on the battlefield after such a nightmarish experience?”

“We weren’t tortured that badly, General,” John replied with a firm salute, “We can still fight. And we will.”

“Alright,” Ryan replied with satisfaction, then turning to Jessica, reminded, “Just remember that your actions within the next several hours will determine our fate and the lives of everyone in the town. Now get some soldiers on the rooftops and have them reinforce our gunners up there. We’ve already lost at least four of them and need the area reinforced.”

“Yes sir,” Jessica replied firmly.

“General, they’re coming back!” yelled Nicholas and ducked just as an explosion ricocheted off the wall near his window.

Jessica, Jackie, John, Trisha and three other soldiers rushed to an adjacent room, taking up firing positions by the windows and opening up immediately. Hailey, meanwhile, took Dale and several other soldiers to the roof level, where they helped reinforce the mounted artillery units.

A gun truck rolled up about twenty five yards from the apartment building, launching rockets at the unit.

“J****!” Jessica yelped before falling backward as a rocket flew right through the window and exploded nearby. Jackie yelled in agony, but she was only minorly bruised and briefly frightened by the explosion.

Another rocket crashed onto the roof level, killing two more of Unit Eagle’s soldiers and forcing Hailey and Dale to the ground. Dale recovered quickly, but Hailey wasn’t in as good condition. She’d twisted her ankle when she’d fallen and was whining in pain as she tried to stand up. Dale helped Hailey to her feet and guided her to safer cover. Lisa arrived and helped bandage up the injury as well clean the cuts and bruises on both Hailey and Dale.

“John take out those bastards before they fire another round!” Jessica yelled, and John loaded a grenade into his rifle, scoring a direct hit on the gun truck’s engine after firing the explosive. Julia gunned down the militants who been knocked down after the gun truck had exploded before they could even recover. Something sharp suddenly punched her in the left eye, and half her vision blacked out.

Screaming in pain and falling backward, Julia clutched her eye and wailed “My eye! MY EYE!”

“MEDIC!” Jackie yelled, and Betty ducked below the crossfire and helped Julia to her feet, guiding her out of the room while Julia still cried and swore in pain. Mary had rushed upstairs to help reinforce the roof level, taking up position on an HVAC unit and firing her sniper rifle at various enemy soldiers that came into view. She was later joined by Rachel, Jacey, and Lucile, who’d been trained by her for sniper combat.

Leslie had taken Bravo Company to another adjacent room, ordering Carla, Angela, Alyssa, Megan, and Anne to specifically target any soldiers carrying RPG’s with them.

“Keep Firing, girls, KEEP FIRING!” Jessica called through her comm, “Route them back to their camp!!”

Trisha managed to gun down the driver of another incoming gun truck, pulling it to a halt and making it an easy target for Dale, who launched a missile and obliterated the truck entirely. Kay bit the pin off a grenade and hurled it among the ranks of the militants, killing at least seven. Natasha got a lucky shot while helping Lilly gun down grenadiers among the militant’s ranks, hitting the RPG on a launcher that was tied to the back of a soldier and changing him into a small orange volcanic blast.

Several cries in arabic eventually went up and the militants retreated.

“Off they go again,” Nicholas said, to which Harris added, “And let’s hope we’re ready for whatever they bring with them when they come back.”

Exhaling with relief, Jessica lay down behind the window she’d been firing from and placed her rifle on her lap. Lisa, meanwhile, helped guide Hailey back down from the roof level at a limp. When they reached the room where Jessica, John, Jackie, and Trisha were, Hailey was gently laid against the same wall as Jessica while Lisa supervised Hailey’s condition. John came up next to Jessica, laying his rifle aside and locking a gaze with her.

“Let’s hope we get out of this alive,” John muttered.

“Are you worried we won’t?” Jessica questioned, “I mean, we’re holding our ground. Sure we got shaken up a bit by that mortar attack, but we’re still in one piece.”

“How much more can those militants fight before their strength is completely depleted?” Jackie asked, rotating her toes back and forth, “We’ve unleashed everything we’ve got on them. Why aren’t they just giving up?”

“Terrorists don’t give up, Jackie,” Trisha commented, “They will fight to the death to spread their terrible wrath among a population.”

“But we will too,” Hailey replied, “We will fight to the death to keep this town and it’s citizens safe. Isn’t that right Jessica?”

“That’s right,” Jessica said without hesitation. She then grabbed Hailey’s hand and held it firmly, adding, “We will fight together, and...if it ever comes down to it, we will die together.”

Hailey’s other hand managed to link up with Trisha’s, and Jackie and John locked in shortly. Even Lisa put her hand on the link between Hailey and Jessica. A foreshadowing thought flickered in Jessica’s mind: she, Hailey, John, Trisha, and Jackie, having fallen to enemy fire, but each of them holding each other’s hands and Jessica with a U.S. flag clutched within her arm. Jessica blinked the thought away, trying to reassure herself that such a future event would never happen. She then stood up and added, “If another assault comes...We’re going to unleash h*** on those guys. They took Trisha’s brother, they took John’s brother, and they’re violent religious trash has taken away much more from our country and its allies. We may not be able to stop them all together, but we can certainly make an impact. We can be the knife that drives a wedge in their so-called religious conquest.”

Jessica’s friends nodded their agreement and willingness, their eyes stone hard and the muscles in their arms tensioned as they held the link with each other.

A little while later, after some of Jessica’s friends had fallen asleep, John walked over to Jessica, who was leaning against a wall and thinking quietly to herself. As much as her nerves tugged at her, Jessica felt unable to let fatigue wash over her this time, almost as though this was the wrong time to do it.

“You tired at all, Jesse?” John asked.

“Not really,” Jessica said, “I’m thinking about my family. When you asked me about knowing what it’s like to lose someone close to you, I couldn’t come up with a valid answer.”

“Well it’s good that you didn’t,” John said, “It means you’ve been able to hold onto your loved ones, and that they are still there to care for you.”

“Would you have still gone to fight overseas if you’re brother hadn’t died in the Pentagon?” Jessica asked, turning to him.

“Yes, I still would’ve,” John admitted without regret, “I was already in the army when it happened. I would have been obligated to do so one way or another. Do you have any siblings, Jesse?”

“Yes,” Jessica said quietly, “A younger sister named Alicia.”

At this, Jessica pulled out the photo of her and Alicia and showed it to John.

“Wow, she’s quite beautiful,” John commented, “How old is she?”

“This photo was taken when she was in sixth grade, just before I went off to serve here,” Jessica said, “She’s now fifteen and a freshman in high school. She’s also an excellent soccer player.”

John then hesitated as a new thought came to his mind. Up until now, he’d had passionate feelings for Jessica, but kept them to himself. Even the fact that she’d just rescued him from the enemy’s east camp was, for all he knew, just one of a number of obligations she tasked herself with and nothing personal. But he wondered; was Jessica having similar passionate feelings for him? He was always nervous about revealing passionate feelings toward a woman, and the fact that Jessica was much higher up on the chain of command than he, mentioning even an affectionate thought to her might seem absolutely idiotic. But he figured, “Damn, why don’t I get this off my chest.” He put a hand to his head as he struggled to figure out the best way to phrase his feelings to Jessica. After almost five minutes, he finally found the courage to say it.

“Jessica, has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?” John slowly asked.

“No, I don’t believe so,” Jessica replied, her grayish-brown eyes showing a little vague surprise at the question. She then switched to a gentle but imploring look as she added, “Do you think that?”

John’s eyes nervously darted back and forth as he figured out how to reply.

“Go on, just tell me,” Jessica quietly encouraged.

“Yes,” John exhaled, “I think you are extremely attractive. And not just in your looks, but also your attitude, your skills as a commander and fighter, and much more.”

“Thanks,” Jessica said, staring at the ground, but John noticed a sheepish smile ripping at her lips.

It was Jessica who asked the next question, much to John’s surprise.

“Are you married at all,” Jessica asked.

“No, never been,” John replied solemnly, “I joined the army almost immediately after college. I did have a girlfriend, but we parted on friendly terms when I left for service. I haven’t been in contact with her since. Did you ever have a love interest, Jesse?”

“No,” Jessica admitted, “Like you, I was so concentrated on my career that I never had that kind of time. I have recently had a change of heart though. You know Private Ambrose from my unit?”

“I believe so,” John replied, c***ing his head in thought.

“She’s engaged to marry Corporal Montgomery from Unit Eagle after their service terms expire,” Jessica said, “It sort of begged the question from me if I was ever going to find love in my service term.”

“Can I ask you something, Lieutenant Colonel?” John asked.

“Yes, and you don’t have to refer to me by rank, John,” Jessica replied, “Count this as an exception.”

“Why were you motivated to retrieve me from the enemy camp?” John said, “I mean, you’re whole unit risked their lives to save us.”

“I value the lives of soldiers, whether they’re in my unit or another unit,” Jessica replied.

“Was there anything else?” John inquired politely.

Jessica knew that John was curious if there was anything personal about her decision. She wanted to deny it, but given the fact that they’d already been talking about love and romance and that John was a very respectful person, she figured she might as well reveal it.

“It’s hard to admit,” Jessica said, “But I also did it because I didn’t want to lose you. When we first met, I was already beginning to have some passionate feelings for you, but felt unwilling to express them. But when you were captured, and General McCoy initially denied me permission to go, I felt like a hole had been punched in my soul, that I just lost someone close, like you did when your brother died. The strain was too much to bear, so I defied orders, had my unit assembled, and we went out to rescue you. I wasn’t disciplined, thankfully, but I risked my career and my position in the armed services for you. Everything I’d worked for...for you.”

Jessica hesitated, briefly avoiding John’s imploring look.

“In short John,” Jessica said, giving a look of sheepish embarrassment, “I...I..like you.”

“I do too, Jessie,” John replied, knowing exactly what she meant. At this, John’s hand gently linked with Jessica’s. They turned and faced each other, exchanging a look of comfort and reassurance with each other. They briefly hugged each other, and then John asked, “Do you have any problem with a kiss?”

“None at all,” Jessica replied, but looking at Hailey, Jackie, and Dale sleeping peacefully, added,“Let’s just do it somewhere away from the others.”

John nodded, and they walked out, across the hallway to an adjacent room.

“Let’s just go lightly with each other, okay?” John said as they weaved behind the door, “Nothing too close.”

“As long as we don’t get too rough, I won’t spike,” Jessica replied.

They removed each other’s helmets and took a minute to observe each other. Then, slowly, they hooked their arms around each other and even slower, brought their lips together. The minute they made contact, Jessica felt a surge of pleasure bursting in her veins and her mind almost lose awareness of her surroundings. She felt one of her legs spring up behind her as the pleasing feeling continued to glow in her chest and her arms tightened around John as they continued the exchange. They kept their arms linked around each other’s back, keeping away from any sensitive locations for the moment. The room seemed to disintegrate around them as they continued, and Jessica only saw a river of bright and beautiful colors in her mind throughout that moment.

Finally, they called an end to it and they looked at each other with passionate expressions before John strapped his helmet back on and added, “Let’s get back with everyone else. The enemy may be coming back and we don’t want to lose this town.”

“And we won’t,” Jessica said, strapping her own helmet back on and briefly rubbing her insignia armband in confidence, “Not as long as I’m in command.”

They quietly walked back into the other room, laying down next to each other and finally dozing off. But just as their eyes had just about shut, the Lieutenant Colonel and the Sergeant’s hands found the link once more and it remained linked for the next ten or so minutes after both had fallen deep into sleep.

“Jessica! Jessica!” Trisha’s voice yelled as Jessica was shaken awake, “Wake up! The enemy’s is coming back!”

That spiked Jessica’s senses and she was up on her feet in an instant. She saw that already, most of her unit was already in action, either rushing to the roof level or taking up position by the windows. John too was also up and in firing position, and Jackie and Hailey kept below the cover of an adjacent windowsill as they waited for a target to come close enough. Peering through the window, Jessica could just see through the faint light of the dawn another wave of militants rushing toward them, firing their rifles wildly.

“You give the word, Lieutenant Colonel,” Hailey insisted.

Without hesitation, Jessica yelled, “Take ‘Em Down!!” and began firing through the window.

For seemingly the next hour, it was almost a repeat of last night, except the enemy did not carry gun trucks with them.

“We must’ve wiped out their truck supply in the last fight,” Jessica thought to herself.

“Jessica, you got any spare clips on you?” John yelled, “I’m running low!”

“Here,” Jessica replied, pulling a spare one from her backpack and quickly handing it to him.

“Take this!” Trisha yelled, letting the pain from Carlos’ death fuel her and gunning down at least five or six soldiers in one rotated spray.

“This is what you get for spraining my ankle!” Hailey yelled, also letting some rage fuel her.

Jackie just yelled as she fired wildly into the enemy ranks. Momentarily, they were joined by Julia, who wore an eye patch over the eye that had gotten hit last night. Without question, she took up a spare rifle and started firing into the enemy ranks.

Alyssa and Angela took up position on the roof with several other soldiers, continuously side-stepping to change their firing positions and ducking to avoid enemy fire. An armored van drove up, but Angela managed to score direct kill shots on the militants as they unloaded from the vehicle. Carla, Kay, and Cammy took over the mounted machine guns on the roof’s edge, yelling and gunning down militants by the dozens. Natasha hurled a grenade into the ranks and Amanda followed up with her grenade launcher, blowing a noticeably large breach in the enemy’s lines. Mary, also by the edge of the roof, had concealed herself just below the wall on the edge of the roof and locked onto a soldier carrying an ignited bottle bomb on him. With a pull of the trigger, she destroyed the explosive and its owner, blowing another breach in the enemy ranks.

As more of the dawn’s light began to emerge, the enemy fell back into retreat. Much of Unit Comet cheered as the enemy pulled back, others yelling taunts at the enemy.

“You call that fighting, suckers!?” Lilly yelled, spitting out beyond the roof.

“Yeah!” Hailey yelled, pumping her fist in in success.

Jessica was also feeling triumphant, but then noticed bulky shapes out in the distance. A closer look revealed a convoy of vehicles rolling toward the enemy camp.

“Uh-oh,” Jessica gulped, “I think they’ve called for reinforcements.”

She and John kept their rifles at the ready, but then Jessica heard more gunfire erupting at the campsite. Viewing through the electrobinoculars, Jessica saw Afghan soldiers unloading from the vehicles and charging into the enemy camp. Jessica then noticed a flag being held among the attacking unit, colored green, white, and black with a golden seal in the middle.

“The Northern Alliance,” Jessica replied.

“What’s going on, Lieutenant Colonel?” Jackie asked.

“It looks as though the local militias are back to support us,” Jessica replied, then her comlink crackled as General Ryan came on the line.

“Lieutenant Colonel, are you willing to reinforce the Alliance out there?” Ryan asked.

Jessica thought for a little while, then decided, “In support of our country, in support of our fallen, yes, we’ll cut them off.”

“Alright, that’s the spirit,” Ryan replied enthusiastically, “I’ll get Unit Eagle assembled, you assemble Unit Comet and Unit Hawkeye and meet me down at the first floor in five minutes.”

“Roger that, General,” Jessica said, then turned to her unit.

“Hailey we’re going out to cut off the enemy camp,” Jessica informed, “John, get your unit together and follow us down.”

“Yes ma’am,” John replied obediently.

“Unit Comet,” Jessica called through her comm, “Assemble on the first floor. We’re going to advance on the enemy position. Move move move!”

Jessica and everyone else with her vacated the room and rushed down the stairs to the first floor. When the whole defensive force assembled at the bottom floor, Jessica and looked over to Ryan, who stood at the front of his unit.

“Ready Lieutenant Colonel?” Ryan asked.

“Ready,” Jessica replied with a confident nod.

Ryan drew his pistol and yelled, “Advance!”

Almost simultaneously, Jessica held her rifle up and hollered, “Charge!”

The whole battalion force rushed, yelling, right up to the enemy camp, completely catching the enemy off guard. They quickly overran the outer defensive lines and split up, covering either members of the Northern Alliance or each other and taking out any militants and their vehicles that came in sight.

Kay was struck in the side and, howling, fell against a tent. Hailey and Lisa arrived, with Lisa tending to the wound and Hailey providing cover fire. A small nearby explosion briefly threw Jessica to the ground, but she managed to recover. She then noticed a concealed militant drawing a rifle and slowly advancing on Hailey and Lisa.

“Hailey! Hailey!” Jessica called out, trying to warn her of the imminent threat. It seemed in vain, though, among the continuous yells and gunfire. Jessica then found her rifle an arms-length away and, hauling it into her arms, unleashed its firepower on the advancing soldier. The militant yelled in pain and fell backward, but his rifle went off and a shot struck Jessica in the shoulder, forcing her to the ground.

“Oh my God!” Hailey cried, rushing to Jessica and helping her to her feet.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Jessica insisted, regaining her footing, but found it hard to ignore the burning feeling coming from her shoulder.

Searching through Lisa’s medical kit, Hailey slapped a patch onto Jessica’s wounded shoulder, staunching the blood flow and temporarily subduing its burning feeling. Jessica then saw a Taliban soldier knock a Northern Alliance soldier to the ground and stomp on his head. Jessica brought up her rifle and attempted to fire, but found that her clip was used up.

“F***,” she hissed, then drew her combat knife and rushed at the soldier. She tackled him to the ground and thrust her knife into the back of his neck. Pulling it out, she countered another attacking soldier by throwing her knife straight into his chest. She then switched to her semi-automatic, firing rapid single bursts at random Taliban soldiers and Islamic militants.

“Grenade!” Victoria cried, throwing one that got three militants attempting to catch Jessica from behind.

“Get Down!” Mary yelled to Trisha, who rolled quickly to the side as Mary unleashed a sweeping volley from her rifle on several advancing soldiers. Trisha, still behind cover, drew her semi-automatic and added a few extra shots of her own.

“We’re gaining ground, Lieutenant Colonel,” Ryan’s voice said over Jessica’s comlink, “Seek out the enemy leader. If possible, take him alive.”

“Yes sir, I’m on it,” Jessica complied, then called out, “Jackie, Melissa, Rachael, John and Dale, we’re going to locate and capture the commander. Rendezvous with me at the enemy’s command tent.”

“Yes ma’am,” came various voices through her comm.

It only took a minute to track down the commander’s tent, a large sand colored tent that was guarded by at least six or seven militants. Jessica’s squad split up, either engaging the soldiers in close quarters combat or using defensive and standard-issue weapons to gun down the soldiers. The squad then got on either side of the tent and waited until Jessica flagged her hand down and they charged, rifles raised, into the tent.

Inside was a bearded man with large spectacles and some rather tattered clothing. Jessica and her squad kept their rifles at the ready, in case he made any attempt to fight back. Such an instance never came, though; the commander just sat there, his eyes closed, as though waiting for the end to come.

“Let’s kill that f***** b**** right now,” snarled Jackie, advancing closer with her rifle raised, but Jessica held her hand out, blocking her path.

“No, take him alive,” Jessica ordered, “He’s not putting up any resistance. Rachael, grab some rope and tie his hands. John, keep the area covered.”

Already, with the camp mostly overrun and the enemy leader captured, much of the fighting was beginning to subside. Jessica and her squad cautiously exited the tent, with the leader closely guarded by Jackie and Melissa. Hailey and some of Jessica’s friends cheered as they paraded through the camp, as though Jessica had just captured or killed a prize animal from a hunt. Jessica felt proud, but kept a emotionless expression as she continued to walk.

Suddenly, Melissa yelped in surprise, Jackie gasped and Jessica wheeled around just as the leader grabbed the semi-automatic pistol from Jessica’s utility belt. Jessica’s heart froze; was she about to get shot? But then her heart, in that same instance, lept into her mouth when the leader brought the pistol straight to his head and fired a single round alongside his temple.

Wide-eyed with shock and slightly flecked with blood, Jessica observed the leader, dead on the ground in front of her.

“Good God,” Jessica muttered. Then a thought triggered in her mind. She remembered instances in which U.S. Military Police soldiers, both men and women, had abused terrorist POWs in some of the most wretched and unspeakable ways ever. She finally shut her eyes and muttered with a little relief toward the fallen enemy leader, “It must’ve been for the better.”

Carefully stepping over the body, Jessica came up to Melissa and Jackie.

“You two okay?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, just got kicked in the shin,” Melissa replied.

“That b**** elbowed me in the stomach,” Jackie wheezed with anger, still recovering.

Jessica couldn’t help emitting a small giggle, recalling that Jackie had made a similar complaint back at RECON during training, but worked hard to suppress it behind her smile when Jackie muttered, “It’s not funny.”

“Couldn’t help it,” Jessica replied, “At least you’re still alive.”

An hour or so later, Jessica and her unit were back at their defensive line in the apartment building. Jessica was on the rooftop with several soldiers, helping them haul an American flag up to the roof, where it would be mounted to display their victory. Jessica helped carry the flagstaff at one end while Hailey, Jackie, John, and Dale helped carry the flag itself. When  they reached a suitable position, Jessica set the pole into the ground and called out, “One..Two..Three...HEAVE!” and all five of them pushed at the pole while Trisha and Leslie helped support the post from the opposite side until it reached an almost ninety degree angle, catching the wind and whipping honorably. Jessica looked at the flag, which shined its red, white, and blue colors through the sun, and gave a salute, which all the soldiers with her copied.

At a celebratory banquet back at RECON, the soldiers all talked about their experiences from the battle.

“The worst part of it was being searched by the militants,” John was telling Jessica, “Of course, being a soldier, they found a h*** of a lot of gear and weaponry on me. Obviously didn’t pass ‘inspection.’”

Jessica and Hailey giggled a bit at this before John continued.

“They then grouped us and sent us off to the tents, arms bound and everything. Of course, a few hours later, you girls came, and that was basically the end of what could’ve been a much scarier story.”

“It was all Jesse’s idea,” Hailey said, nudging Jessica, who added a silly embarrassed smile, “She wasn’t willing to leave you behind. I just followed orders. After all, she’s got the higher rank.”

“I’m sorry that you lost those four soldiers, though, Jesse,” John added, giving her a sympathetic look.

“Preparations are already being made back at Arlington at least,” Jessica said, “And none of their deaths were in vain. That’s the most important part.If Lucy hadn’t crashed the jeep into that car bomber, we would have lost maybe thirty or more civilians. If Anna hadn’t blown herself up with that RPG unit, we all would’ve died.”

One of Anna’s last lines echoed in Jessica’s head as she said this; “One life for sixty or seventy others, I’m willing to take that risk.”

“And it was a price worth paying, Anna,” Jessica acknowledged in her head.

“What about you Jackie,” John asked, looking over at her.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere,” Jackie said, giving an enthusiastic spin, “After all the excitement I’ve had, I’ll keep fighting out here until we’ve beaten every last one of the terrorists. Even then, I’ll still keep fighting.”

“Well there is such a thing as too much fighting,” Jessica commented, “War is never a game.”

“It sure isn’t,” Hailey agreed, and John nodded as well.

“Lieutenant Colonel,” came General McCoy’s voice, and Jessica quickly turned around and whipped up a salute.

“I just want to say how proud I am for helping Ryan shatter the Taliban’s offensive lines on the west end of the town. But I also just want to extend that compliment for rescuing Unit Hawkeye and dissolving the east camp as well.”

He then took out an envelope and Jessica saw a US Armed Forces seal on it.

“Promotion,” was the first word that came to her mind, but she kept the word from exiting verbally. Instead, General McCoy pulled out a series of medals.

“This one’s for you, Lieutenant Colonel Allison,” McCoy replied, handing over the Valorous Unit Award. Jessica graciously accepted it and tagged it to her uniform.

“Lieutenant Rincoln, you’ve received another Silver Star medal for your actions,” McCoy said, handing the medal over. “Ms. Kellerman, your medal is the Soldier’s Medal, and Mr. Mitchell, for your work with Jessica in that last fight, have been awarded the Bronze Star. Good job all of you. Keep it up.”

“Thank you General,” Jessica replied with a handshake followed by another salute.

“Wow, I’ve never received one of these before,” Jackie said, observing her medal.

“It’s what comes to soldiers who do their job well,” Jessica replied.

“Damn right it is,” Hailey agreed with another sly look.

“No question,” John added in.

Three months later

Alicia Allison had managed to make it to the nationals in the little league soccer tournament in Washington DC. The Pasadena TIGERS were squaring off against a team from Wisconsin, who’d virtually fought tooth and nail to get to the nationals and were by far a fierce team. Alicia, though, wasn’t the least bit intimidated. She’d faced challenges on the field of play before and gotten through them in one piece. Her older sister, Jessica, had also been through a number of challenges, a number of which would have cost her life or the lives of her unit. And yet, she too had braved right through them. That second victory her sister had scored, which Alicia had seen on the news, had motivated Alicia for this moment.

In the stands to the right of the field, Jessica and Unit Comet all had reserved seating, getting a close view of the field. The announcer came on over the loudspeakers and welcomed the audience to the game, then announced that they would sing the Star-Spangled Banner.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Allison, Second Lieutenant Hailey Rincoln, and Master Sergeant Jackie Kellerman as they lead ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’”

Jessica and her friends entered the field through a gateway at the bottom of the stands, where Jessica called out “Right, Left, Right, Left!” as they made their way to the center of the field. Jessica blushed a bit as she heard the TIGERS cheering for them, which changed shortly to “Let’s go Jesse. Let’s go Jesse.” A referee handed Jessica, Hailey, and Jackie a mic as they three commanders came to halt.

“Okay, remember how we rehearsed it,” Jessica whispered to Hailey and Jackie, “I’ll start. Hailey, you take it at the third stance, and Jackie, you take it at the fifth stance. We’ll finish it up with all three of us. Got it.”

“Got it,” Hailey and Jackie returned.

Jessica looked up to the stadium screen, which briefly switched to a computer generated flag blowing in the air. At the same time, all of Unit Comet stood up, adding a firm salute. This was their cue, and Jessica began.

“Oh say can you see,” Jessica sang, “By the dawn’s early light. What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming.”

“Whose broad stripes and bright stars,” Hailey continued, “Thro the perilous fight. O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.”

“And the rocket’s red glare,” Jackie sang out, “The bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.”

“Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave,” all three of them sang in chorus, “O’er the land of the free...and the home of the brave.”

The audience went up in yells and cheers when they finished, and Jessica and her friends looked to the screen, adding an honorable salute to the on-screen flag before it disappeared and the three retreated back to the stands.

“Nice singing out there, Lieutenant Colonel,” Trisha commented as Jessica returned to her seat.

“Thanks,” Jessica said, “But I’d forgotten just how good of a singing voice Jackie has.”

“I took some choir in middle and high school,” Jackie replied with a beaming smile and wink.

“You did great too, Hailey,” Jessica added as the teams raced out to the field.

“Thanks, Jesse,” Hailey acknowledged, “You want me to take any of the girls to get some concessions?”

“Sure,” Jessica replied enthusiastically, “But in small groups only. I don’t want the whole unit runnin’ off from the game.”

“Roger that,” Hailey replied, and gathered up the first group.

As the game commenced, Jessica pointed out Alicia to Jackie.

“She’s quite a runner,” Jackie commented, noticing how quickly Alicia dribbled the ball across the field, “I’d like to work with her someday. Maybe test those skills of hers.”

“She get’s enough coaching from me,” Jessica playfully countered, “Twenty or so push-ups before every game and just about that many sit ups. We also like jogging in the park a lot. Get’s her adrenaline boosted.”

Alicia continued to dribble the ball until she was just several meters short of the goal. A defense, though, kicked it away from her. However, one of Alicia’s friends, Samantha, retrieved the ball and shot it into the goal from a distance.

“Yeah!!” Jessica yelled, and the rest of her unit cheered with her.

“Hey Jesse,” came John’s voice, and Jessica turned to see John come up along the stairwell near her row, carrying some popcorn with him.

“John!” Jessica exclaimed, “What brings you here, Sarge.”

“Was I going to miss a little league soccer game, especially a national one?” John rhetorically asked, “I sure wouldn’t. Not for the life of me. Besides, I heard you’re younger sister is on one of the teams.”

“Yeah, she’s number 12 in the red and black there,” Jessica said, pointing to the said team member.

Again, it seemed as though Alicia’s “Tri-Star Entity” was carrying the TIGERS to victory. But the opposing team also had good team members. At least three times or more, a team member from the opponents managed to score a goal, bypassing every defense the TIGERS could put up. Samantha’s twin sister, Jenny, sweeped a ball straight out from an incoming opponent offense player, returning the shot to Samantha. Samantha then crossed over the midline and transferred possession of the ball to Alicia. Rushing and sidestepping defenders, Alicia ran ahead to the goal. Just as she got within a few meters of the goal’s outer defensive line, a player stuck her foot out and tripped Alicia.

Jessica and Unit Comet yelled and booed the action with the rest of the audience just as the referee blew the whistle furiously and handed a yellow card. Alicia was fine, just a bit stained with grass and dirt from the skid. The referee called a penalty shot, and Alicia was awarded the chance to make the shot. Backing up almost five yards from the ball, Alicia rushed forward and thrust her foot into the ball, shooting it forward at deadly speed. The goalie missed by almost three inches and the ball crashed into the net.

“YES! That’s Alicia Allison for you!” Jessica called out.

“Awesome shot,” John said, amazed, “Has she ever considered going to the World Cup when she’s older.”

“Good question,” Jessica replied, “I never asked.”

“You know, we should get soccer introduced as a game for athletic sessions,” Trisha suggested, “I mean, it would help the soldiers with their accuracy as well as their reflex actions.”

“Yes,” Jessica agreed, “Let’s talk with General McCoy. I’m sure he’d be willing to add an extra game like that to the RECON athletic agenda.”

“Did Alicia ever have plans to sign up for the army?” Hailey asked when a timeout was called.

“I don’t think she ever mentioned it,” Jessica admitted, “But in three years or so, she’ll be required to sign up for the draft. Whether that means that she actually enlists, I have no idea.”

“I wonder, given the fact her older sister is not just a soldier, but a honored commander, she would make a good soldier,” John replied, “Of course, that’s completely her choice. I can also see her becoming a world champion at soccer.”

“When she turns eighteen, I’ll ask her,” Jessica replied, “That’s a good point.”

At the end of the game, as hoped, the TIGERS were the champions, but by a close score: 15 - 13.

After Alicia and her team had returned from a celebratory conversation in the locker rooms, Jessica and Unit Comet stood on either side of the locker room and, on Jessica’s orders, gave a salute as members of the team exited, having changed from their soccer uniforms back into their regular clothes. Alicia was one of the last ones to leave, her cleats strung over her shoulder with her uniform as she came out and greeted Jessica.

Jessica gave Alicia a big, proud hug, twirling once with Alicia clutched in her arms.

“Great Job, Alicia, Great Job,” Jessica exclaimed, “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Jessica,” Alicia returned, almost sobbing with joy.

After this was done, Jessica and her friends walked over to Jessica’s mom, who was waiting on the sidewalk near the parking lot. Jessica wanted to introduce her new friends to the family.

“I know you know Hailey and Trisha here,” Jessica said, “But, mom, I’d also like you to meet a friend of mine from boot camp; Master Sergeant Jackie Kellerman.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Allison,” Jackie graciously replied, shaking her hand.

“Also, mom, I told you I’d found a love interest in my last letter, right?” Jessica asked.

“I believe you did,” her mom replied.

“Well I’d like you to meet him, too,” Jessica said, waving John forward, “Sergeant John Mitchell from Unit Hawkeye.”

“How nice to meet you,” Jessica’s mom replied, shaking his hand.

“And pleasure for me to meet you,” John replied politely.

“Don’t mind me for asking,” Jessica’s mom inquired, giving an implored look, “But you two are engaged to marry, isn’t that right?”

“Really?” Alicia exclaimed with happy surprise.

“Yes we are,” Jessica said, and she and John linked hands together, “We thought about it for a while, but we finally decided that as long as family life doesn’t interfere with our service terms, what’s the big deal.”

“Yeah,” John replied, “Jessica here is a great commander. You should see her when she’s on the battlefield. You know Alicia,” he added, kneeling down to her, “If you should ever sign up with the army, you should certainly join your older sister’s unit.”

“If I should ever be required to put forth such a sacrifice, then that’s where I’ll go,” Alicia replied with a cute little smile.

“In that case,” Jessica’s mom said, “We’re holding a party when we get back to LA tomorrow. You want to bring anyone from the unit to come?”

“Sure, I’ll ask around,” Jessica said, “And if needed, I’ll see to it they come in the nicest attire,” she added with a wink to John.

“Fine by me,” he replied, “I’d like to see the ‘City of Angels’ after so long.”

As the soldiers boarded a coach bus near the parking lot, Jessica asked John, “Are you from Los Angeles?”

“Me? No,” John replied, “I’m a San Diegan. I forgot to mention that I also spent some time at Camp Pendleton in between my service with the National Guard and with the Army.”

“Is the seabreeze nice there?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah,” John replied, exhaling a satisfied laugh, “But a lot more of the fun is down south, towards the Downtown and Mission Beach areas, where all the amusement parks, apartments, and community areas are.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been there,” Jessica said, as they ascended the steps into the bus, “Would you take me there sometime?”

“It would be an honor, Lieutenant Colonel,” John replied.

The next day, a number of friends and comrades from Unit Comet came to the party at Jessica’s house. Jessica had on a polished commander’s uniform, shiny black high-heels, and had done her hair up in a neat pony tail. John arrived with a nice, shiny black suit and a red bow-tie. Hailey was in a peach colored dress with some polished Adidas and her hair done back in a bundle, while Trisha wore a more glamorous sparkling dress with white low-heels. Even Lisa was there, in her own velvet red dress. Jackie, although still keeping her hair short, arrived with a polished white button-up shirt and shiny shortcut jeans and low-top heeled boots. Dale, at John’s recommendation, had also arrived, also wearing a black suit and a long black tie.

The party went all through the day, with various games, conversations, and activities. The event was smoke and alcohol free, especially since Jessica knew that military forbade such behaviors in the first place. Jessica’s mom, with Alicia’s help, had prepared an amazing three layered cake with red, white, and blue frosting. Even for Lisa, that seemed appropriate, since the British flag had the same colors as the US flag, but anyway, what did she care? The party was fun one way or another. That night, the backyard was lit up in a spectacular light show and the patio part of the backyard had been cleared for dancing. For a while, the girls played around with music from their IPods and phones, including themes such as YMCA, We Will Rock You, Part of Me, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.

As Jessica and John watched Jackie do some talented spins and twirls while listening to a pop rhythm, John asked, “What do you say we do some dancing together?”

“By all means, Johnny,” Jessica said, taking his arm.

“Johnny?” John replied as they moved to the center of the patio, “Nobody’s ever called me that before.”

“Well, now someone has,” Jessica replied, “Give me sec, I just want to change the music briefly.”

After the current tune had finished up, Jessica walked over to the music player, changed the devices, and selected a gentle romantic melody. It first started with a harp, and just as the main melody kicked in, Jessica and John hooked arms and started to dance together, while Hailey and some of the others cleared some space for the couple. They glided gracefully across the patio, gently spinning, sliding back and forth, and twirling each other around.

“Your a great dancer, Jesse,” John commented.

“I took a little dance class during my senior year in high school,” Jessica replied as she twirled around John, “sort of a means of preparation for Prom.”

“I never took a class,” John admitted, “I learned it all from the movies.”

“Well you certainly learned a lot,” Jessica commented with a sweet smile.

A few more minutes of dancing and the two came close together, and brought their lips together in a brief kiss. Jessica’s friends clapped with some giving a few appreciated cheers.

“I wonder what family life will be like?” Jessica asked.

“Let’s hope it remains prosperous,” John commented, “And that death will be the only thing that separates us.”

“How it comes, I don’t really want to know,” Jessica replied, “Just being with you and serving my country is all I care about at this point.”

“That’s a great goal,” John said, gliding backward with Jessica in his arms.

“But I think I might have another thing that becomes a responsibility of ours,” Jessica replied, “And I’ll give you one guess what that will be.”

“I have no idea, tell me,” John replied.

At this, Jessica looked down at her middle and returned an appreciated smile. John briefly widened his eyes, but then gave a look of narrow-eyed appreciation.

“Oh Lieutenant Colonel…” John said, pretending to be playfully disappointed.

“Yes sir,” Jessica said, “A baby.”

“How soon?” John asked politely.

“A few months, maybe sooner,” Jessica replied, “And I’ll wager it’s a girl.”

“I’ll bet on that too,” John replied, “But can we not also assume that it’s a boy?”

“I don’t know,” Jessica said, “I’ll be seeing the doctor this weekend, so we’ll find out then.”

“Does your mom know?” John asked, giving a briefly concerned look to her, who was in conversation with Jackie.

“She knows,” Jessica admitted with a gentle nod, “And she was absolutely thrilled to hear it, no joke.”

“And the Sunday of this weekend is when we get married, isn’t it?” John asked for clarification.

“It is,” Jessica replied, “And rest assured, I won’t be late. Just don’t you be late, or I’ll have you do fifty push-ups when we get home.”

“Mark my own words, Lieutenant Colonel,” John replied, twirling her again, “I’ll be there on the dot.”

That Sunday, Jessica and John stood at the front of a beautiful church in front of the minister, who read them a prayer. Jessica, through her light and glossy silk gown looked over to John in his own black suit, different from the one he’d worn at the party earlier that week, with a small rose carefully placed inside one of the front pockets. They smiled briefly then returned each other’s focus back to the minister as he finished up.

“Do you, Jonathan Mitchell, take this woman, Jessica Allison, as your wife?” the minister asked.

Without hesitation, John replied, “I do.”

“I hereby pronounce you, husband and wife,” the minister gently replied, gently closing his book. Jessica and John quickly brought each other’s lips together and engaged in a long kiss while members of Unit Comet and Unit Hawkeye in their formal uniforms, Jessica’s family and John’s family, all cheered and clapped.

Jessica and John graciously proceeded out of the church, where they greeted by even more cheering spectators and a shower of birdseed. During a short celebration, Jessica and John went up onto the church’s bandstand, where Jessica had the same romantic tune from the party played as the couple danced gracefully.

Finally, a nice shiny black car pulled up in front of the church parking lot, and Jessica and John, still holding hands, approached the car. Alicia, in her own beautiful silk dress, ran up and delivered one last hug to Jessica.

“How soon will you be back?” Alicia asked.

“We’ll be back tomorrow,” Jessica replied, “Don’t worry, John and I will be fine. In the meantime, keep up with your athletic sessions. Ask Hailey to keep you active.”

“I sure will,” Alicia replied obediently.

As she rushed off, Hailey came up next to Jessica and gave a brief farewell.

“Have a lovely time, Jessica,” Hailey replied, adding a kiss on the cheek, “We’ll be waiting back home when you get back.”

“See you soon, Hailey,” Jessica replied before going with John into the backseat of the car.

Hailey, along with Trisha and Jackie watched the car drive off, and Hailey couldn’t help giggling a bit as she saw both Jessica’s and John’s military boots being dragged behind the car, the laces neatly knotted and bowed on the fender.

“So where’s the honeymoon at, Johnny,” Jessica asked as the church vanished behind them.

“The one place you said you wanted to go,” John replied, “San Diego, here we come.”

“YES!” Jessica exclaimed triumphantly, hugging John hard with joy.

As their chauffeur drove them down the I-5 past the San Onofre Power station and Camp Pendleton, Jessica and John would occasionally exchange a hug or a kiss, and every time, Jessica felt that lovely feeling gushing through her veins.

“By the way, Lieutenant Colonel,” John asked.

“Oh please stop referring to me by rank, silly,” Jessica playfully complained, “We’re not on the battlefield right now.”

“Right, sorry, Jesse,” John replied, “You didn’t tell me if the baby was a girl or boy yet.”

“It’s a girl,” Jessica replied, “And she’s desperate to get out there and fight. Oh, there she goes again, kicking away.”

“Well, hopefully she can wait ‘til after the honeymoon,” John replied.

“Oh I’m sure she will,” Jessica replied, looking at her middle again with satisfaction.

My name is Alicia Allison. My older sister is the famed and honored commander of Unit Comet, Jessica Allison. Jessica and John now work as force coordinators at the Pentagon, Jessica a Lieutenant General and John a Major General. Quite frequently, they will go to RECON to perform inspections of the soldiers there, especially with Unit Comet and Unit Hawkeye. In the meantime, they live just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they’ve raised their first child. Her name is Anna, named after one of the fallen soldiers in Unit Comet during the operation to defend the town from the Taliban. One of Jessica’s soldiers, Nicole, has retired from the army with Corporal Harris Montgomery. They have also successfully wed and they live together in Yorkshire. Jessica and Nicole still keep in contact with each other, exchanging on how family life is going for each other.

As for me, I am now twenty-two, I have just finished college and have decided to enlist in Unit Comet for a five year service term. Although most troops have been pulled out of Afghanistan at this point, the US has still requested that all the units at RECON remain on duty to help ensure safety and security in certain areas. I am one of a number of new recruits now serving proudly with Unit Comet, following in my sister’s footsteps. Jackie Kellerman has risen to the rank of Second Lieutenant, while Jessica’s closest friend, Hailey Rincoln has inherited primary command of Unit Comet with the rank of Captain. As much as she enforces strict discipline among our ranks, Hailey also follows in Jessica’s footsteps, treating each of us with respect and making sure we perform to the best of our ability and beyond that.

General McCoy has retired from service and lives near Hyde Park, New York, the hometown of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His friend, General Ryan Hicks, has taken over as the base superior for RECON and continues to inform McCoy of all goings on at RECON. Because I’m Jessica’s sister and thus recognized among the majority by Hailey and Jackie, I have helped them with a number of tasks, including helping out as a coach for the soccer activities, which were established at RECON a few years earlier. Because of my successful experiences as a soccer player, my coaching the game has made it very popular among the unit and other RECON units.

As for some of the other soldiers in Unit Comet originally, Melissa passed her admirals exam and has been appointed as an admiral on board a newly christened battleship that just entered Miami’s waterfront this year, the U.S.S. Jessica. Julia retired from service, but continues to work for U.S. Army VA Hospital reforms to help veterans and injured soldiers recover. Cammy Nikita is a Sergeant and chief mechanic for the RECON vehicles. I can still remember having to work hard with one or two of those jeeps, crawling under the fender to fix various small problems. Natalia and Victoria have received the ranks of Master Sergeant and Corporal, but in between service tours, they hang out at their ranch in Kentucky, improving on their equestrian talents. Leslie remains a Master Sergeant, but still keeps discipline and hand-to-hand combat stone hard in our blood. Natasha transferred to the Air Force after her service record was approved, and now serves as a member of the Blue Angels in Mira Mesa California. Mary received a commemoration from Queen Elizabeth II and was made a base superior for one of the bootcamps in the Scottish Highlands. Dale, in addition to being a major role model for new GRS soldiers, has taken up part time as an intelligence officer for the CIA, relaying battlefield information straight to the agency’s central command. Trisha is a Command Sergeant Major in Unit Comet, helping Jackie enforce discipline and monitoring the training stations that were set up at RECON seven years ago. She’s also been able to teach me some basketball, one of her favorite games during athletic sessions, and I’ve grown to be quite good at the sport.

Everytime I charge out on the battlefield with my comrades, I see Jessica in my mind, running ahead, waving that U.S. flag and beckoning us forward. I will never forget the risky sacrifices she made during her service term, the countless lives she saved, and the massive accomplishments and victories she made as a result. She burns as the brightest star in the constellation of freedom, honor, and sacrifice in our country’s armed forces and will always be regarded as a major source of inspiration for the US Army, not just here in Afghanistan, but everywhere else. I am honored to be the sister of such a brave and patriotic warrior, but more importantly to serve in the same unit she commanded...UNIT COMET.

THE END

DISCLAIMER:

This book does not contain any reference to any real events or battles that took place during the War in Afghanistan and by extension, the War Against Terrorism. All characters are works of fiction and are not related to any real persons (living or deceased). Any resemblance to any real persons in the story is pure coincidence. All opinions stated by the characters in this book are solely the opinions of the characters themselves and are not to be assumed as or related to the opinions of the author.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Unlike the original Unit Comet, I had not conceived the idea of Bond of Sisterhood beginning in ninth grade. This was a much more recent novel idea that came to mind on somewhat short notice. After finishing the original Unit Comet, I’d repetitively thought about making a sequel, but couldn’t figure out what the storyline itself would be. That all changed in June of 2015. I was on a campus tour of SDSU, and we finished the day at the Aztec Lanes. While playing, one of the music videos that was showed that day was Katy Perry’s Part of Me music video, where Perry becomes a US Marine at Camp Pendleton. Once the soldier scenes kicked in, my interest was immediately hooked. It then occurred to me, “Wait a minute, I’ve just written a story on women in the military.”

“Lightbulb!”

Katy Perry and her Part of Me song had ignited the engines to my novel writing skills, prompting me to officially plan a sequel to Unit Comet. The subtitle, “Bond of Sisterhood,” was inspired from the famous war story Band of Brothers, but I didn’t base anything else in Bond of Sisterhood from the said story. For while thereafter, I envisioned scenes for the book that were inspired, both directly and indirectly, from the music video. However, I eventually came to a dead end, where I was continuously trying to figure out “what will be the climactic action, and what will the battle scenes be like?” This large gap in the story remained until December of 2015. I had discovered the 2011 military sci-fi film Battle Los Angeles, whose supreme acting, soundtrack, and battle sequences helped carry Unit Comet forward. At the same time, Michael Bay was releasing his 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi film, which, in addition to showing what really happened during the 2012 Benghazi attack, also did a great job illustrating the heroic actions and decisions made by the six men who went out to save the US Ambassador and ended up saving thirty-six Americans in the process. That heroic story helped further inspire me to keep writing Unit Comet: Bond of Sisterhood. It was about March of 2016 or so that I first started writing the story itself and around April of the same year that I finished the original draft.

During the writing of this story, I found myself focusing more broadly on a number of other characters in the story, including the new recruits, although I still wanted to keep the story focused on Jessica and her friends as much as possible. The idea of a romance was conceived because I felt it would add a lot more emotion to the story and keep the reader hooked. Mockingjay Part 2, which was still in theaters at the time, helped strengthen various parts of this idea, including Jessica’s fierce and protective loyalty to John’s safety. Again, the body count for Unit Comet themselves was minimal, even though it was actually double that in the original story. Even though the battles seemed very intense while I wrote them, the idea was that even in the most dangerous and perilous of circumstances, most of the unit prevailed because I wanted to keep them fighting.

As with the original Unit Comet, I had a lot of fun writing and reading the book and I can only hope my readers will enjoy this book just as much.