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Lieutenant Shade sighed and relaxed. The autopilot was on, he'd gotten most of the C4 team out of the base, and the Air Ranger dropship was heading towards a resupply zone and staging point for what would perhaps be one of the most important C4 missions in the history of the USSA. For now, there was time to relax a little.
He looked back into the passenger compartment - the troops were nestled in their seats, some sleeping, some fidgeting with their weapons - Parker was going through his belongings.
"Mark." Shade turned to the pilot sitting next to him. "Think you can handle the ship by yourself for a bit?"
"Sure thing, Lieutenant." Jorgenson replied.
"Thanks, man." Shade said as he unstrapped himself and went back into the passenger compartment.
Parker looked up as he saw the Lieutenant sitting down next to him.
"All right Squaddie... here's the deal. After this mission is over, we'll drop you off at a random set of coordinates. From there, you'll be free to go."
"Gee, thanks... drop me off in the desert, I'll be as good as dead."
"I hear there are all kinds of weird things in the desert... humans, aliens living in secret underground hideouts. You'll probably run into a group like that - the drop point is near a suspected location of one of those places... not that the USSA army is gonna waste time looking for it. There's nothing out here we need - just a bunch of aliens."
Parker chuckled. "So why do you think I'm gonna work with you?"
Shade chuckled as well. "Well, since you're so big on morality... eliminating this alien base, or whatever it is, will break the back of alien resistance on the continent. Might even ease up on the amount of humans we have to shoot for collaborating with the aliens... since there won't be any aliens to collaborate with." Shade chuckled again. "Plus, you don't have a choice. We let you go now, the aliens might catch you and learn where our staging area is. And believe me, they will."
Parker nodded and grinned. "Just as long as we're not fighting humans, you've got my cooperation."
Shade nodded. "Good." Then got up and walked back to the cockpit.
A half an hour later, the Ranger had landed on a small, cracked landing pad. The staging area, on the surface, consisted of a bunch of camo netting, and a shack with a staircase leading into a dank concrete bunker. This is where the team could soon be found, lounging around on their sleeping bags, some checking out the weapons storage area, and others talking quietly amongst themselves.
"ATTENTION!" Sargeant Poole bellowed out.
Everyone got up, and looked at the sargeant.
"Thank you, Sargeant." Shade nodded at Poole. "As you probably have figured out by now, the aliens have launched an all-out assault all across the southwestern frontier. As near as intel can tell, they've commited nearly 80% of all their combat troops in an effort to overwhelm our forces." Shade paused for a second and pointed to a USSA map hanging on a wall. "Our troops have been falling back with every alien assault, and at the rate the aliens are advancing, they'll be in Boston within a month."
"The good news is that ours is a calculated and controlled retreat. After all, the president's reputation as a master strategist is well-deserved."
"That's for sure...", mumbled Parker in a distant corner.
"In any case, we're retreating to stretch the alien supply lines and forces to the limit. As soon as they reach a certain cut-offline, our forces, assisted by reserves from the north and east, will counterattack in force. Their goal will be to crush the aliens once and for all."
"So where do we come in?" Jorgenson called out.
"The aliens may be able to field significant additional reinforcements, thus increasing our casualties. Our job is to cut off their ability to do so. For months now, Intel has suspected that the aliens have an enormous base of operations here." He pointed to a spot in the middle of Mexico. "However, we have not been able to find any coordinates. This will be our job."
"And how are we gonna do that?" Came the fairly reasonable and expected question from somewhere in the back.
"Intel has located an alien refueling station here." He pointed again. "We'll be taking a nice, relaxing five-hour hike in the night - for recreational purposes of course." A few chuckles issued from the back. "The purpose is to sneak in, board a small or medium-sized UFO, and kill all the occupants. The trick to this is that we have to do it without an alarm being sounded."
"For you teenagers, that means silencers and knives and no fucking bombs." Poole inserted.
Shade allowed the chuckles to subside before continuing. "After we get inside, we'll use their nav system to figure out the base's coordinates, and then fly there to confirm its location."
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" came from the back.
"No shit, Sherlock." Came a reply from somewhere else in the back
"Keep pushing, Watson, and shut the hell up!" Poole boomed out.
More chuckles. "After we confirm the location, all we have to do is send a transmission to central command, and then clear out to a ten-mile radius in approximately ten minutes." Shade grinned. "And don't look at the flash."
"That's it, troops. Get some rest, we're moving out at nightfall. Dismissed!"
Written on July 17th by Andrew Pokrovski AKA Lieutenant William Shade