“Though you said your status was green.” The lead SK gunner said as Emily climbed back onto the roof.

“Greenish. Give me an hour and it will be right as rain.” Emily said sitting down favoring her arm.

As the afternoon wore on Emily’s side of the city quieted down while the west side seems to get more violent. There was lots of explosions and gunfire. Twice Emily watched as a helicopter fire into the town. She hoped that Val and Rags were ok. She wondered if they had gone up against a Main type super yet.

By the time the sun had set and they got recalled out of the city Emily’s shoulder was mostly fine with a slight twinge whenever she raised it above her head. She led her team out of the city and back to camp. She ate her MRE and grabbed a quick shower then headed off to bed. There were no Mortar attacks that night but Emily still woke up in a panic. She had jumped out of her bed with Righteous in her hands before she released it. Breathing deeply she reassured herself that there was no danger. She slid Righteous under her pillow and tried to go to sleep. It took a very long time before she drifted off.

The next day had them going into the heart of the city. They were taking the government section of the city back. This was the end of their advancement into the city. They were on schedule while the other companies were behind at least a day behind. Command wanted to them to hold where they were at after they cleared the section and let the other two companies complete the push.

The lead sniper had them grab all their stuff before they headed out that morning as he told them that they were not coming back. The nest that the snipers had chosen was a parking garage that was just outside of what could be called city hall. The parking garage was almost completely deserted. They climbed the stairs opening the door to visually clear the garage before heading up to the next level. It was the easiest building they had cleared so far. The did have to check out a few abandoned cars to make sure no one had set any IED’s before they reached the top.

The fight on the other side of the city that day was really intense. Several times helicopters flew into the city to rain down hell on some OCS hold out. On Emily side of the city, there was not much fighting. The OCS seem to abandon the government section. Just past noon, Emily’s company had cleared the government section and Command had them come in.

Command had taken over a courthouse as a CP and were currently fortifying the building when Emily’s team arrived. “Never. The Major wants to see you.” A sergeant said as Emily walked in.

Emily followed the Sergeant to a large conference room where a bunch of people were setting up computer monitors on a large table. The walls were covered in maps and standing to look at one while talking on the radio was a female Major Emily had never met before. The Sergeant waited until she stopped talking before saying “Ma,am Never is here to see you.”

“Never, nice to meet you. Good job yesterday.” The Major said holding out her hand to shake. “Never, I heard that you were injured yesterday but didn’t report it. You’re not in trouble but I need to know how bad you were hurt.” The Major asked.

“I’m fine Ma,am. I took a hit from a hammer yesterday but I heal fast and I’m one-hundred percent now.” Emily said with a smile.

The Major didn’t say anything for a few minutes before coming to a decision. “Ok, I’ll take you at your word but I want you to let someone know if it starts to act up.” She said motioning her to look at a map. “We lost our quick response team(QRT) yesterday when the EXO’s got ambushed. We are in the process of fortifying our side of the city. This street here is designated the main street. It starts by the river here...” The Major said pointing to the south end of the city. “...And continues all the way up to highway 298. Its a four-lane road with a median. We are setting up roadblocks and fortifying the median. I need you to to be my QRT. But while I need a QRT I really need you to be healthy. So I need a no crap assessment are your health enough to do this.”

“No Problem Ma,am I can do this,” Emily said.

“Ok, the sergeant will get you set up.” The Major said turning back around to the maps dismissing Emily.

The Sergeant showed Emily to an armored transport vehicle. “We have standing orders to keep the inside lane open for military traffic so you have if you have to floor it you have room to run. We will have a duty crew here at all times. You will be on call until this is over. Any questions?” The sergeant asked.

“Where do you want me to bunk down,” Emily asked him. He showed her to a nearby building and a small room. “I’m getting my own room. Neat!” Emily thought to herself dropping her stuff off before she wandered away to find something to ear.

While she was getting some MRE’s another Sergeant grabbed her and put her on a detail carrying cement barriers from a flatbed truck to be placed along the road leading into the main street. It was awkward carrying them but not really heavy. Once she was done she was roped into helping them set up floodlights along the median. Once that was done she helped them set up sandbags walls by carrying pallets full of sandbags to where they wanted it to go.

As the sun was setting Emily was surprised at how far down the street she ended up from where she had started. The quick response vertical (QRV) followed her as she helped out setting up defenses. As she worked she heard almost a constant exchange of gunfire in the western side of the city. It was well into the night before they were finished blocking off all the roads that let into Main street and setting up kill zones along the road. She was released to head back to her bunk.

Emily woke up twice the middle of the night to go help where the OCS was attacking a position. Both time the attacks had stopped by the time she got there. Instead of heading back to her bed she crawled under the truck and went to sleep. She was woken up in the morning for a crew change. She got her breakfast and headed back to the QRV to eat.

She had just finished breakfast when they got another call in the north part of the city. They were halfway there they got diverted back towards the south for a larger engagement. When they got there Emily grabbed her gun jumped out of the truck. There was a burning car by the cement barriers rocket and small arms fire coming from the roof of the surrounding buildings.

Emily paused briefly then grabbed a few fragment grenades from the back of the truck and started lobbing them onto the rooftops. The grenades exploded with loud bangs that were followed by some dark gray smoke. While she was throwing grenades the gunner on the truck opened up with the .50 cal. The enemy gunfire quickly tapered away. They stuck around for a little while waiting to make sure that the attack was over before heading back.

When they got back, Command had several armored transport vehicles that they were going to uses as decoy QRV’s. The defense line was attacked several times that day but Emily’s vehicle was only called out once and the fighting had stopped before they got there. The attacks got worse once the sun had set. Several times all three QRV’s were out and they had to deploy helicopters to help out.

“They are getting desperate.” The transport sergeant said after they climbed back into the truck after a firefight. “Things are going to get worse.”

At dawn, Emily was called to a platoon that radioed in that they had OCS wanting to surrender. “You speak native right.” The captain asked as Emily arrived.

“Yes, sir,” Emily said looking out at a group of people with their hands up and on their knees.

“Ok get them down to their skives then have them walk to us one at a time. Anyone resists take them out.” The Captain said

“Keep moving in case they are trying to use SK’s on you.” A Sergeant said standing beside the Captain. “Also watch out for bomber vests. Keep an eye on anyone who looks drunk or stoned. They are the ones most likely to have a bomb vest.” The Sergeant said. Emily nodded to him and started walking towards the men who wanted to surrender.

“Stay where you are and keep your hands up,” Emily said in Farci. As she walked out past the Marines into no man's land with her gun at the ready. She stopped about twenty feet from them and started to walk sideways keeping the men in her sights. Emily was unnerved as the men stared at her.

“Remember you can take these guys. You're a super soldier. You can do this Em!” She thought to herself as she looked out a sea of hostile gazes.

Taking a deep breath Emily raised her hand and said. “Take your….”

The first thing Emily noticed was that her ears were ringing. She opened her eyes then had to blink a few times because everything was unfocused. She sat up and looked around not recognizing where she was. Looking around she wondered “Why am I laying in barbwire.”

Something hit her in the chest. Frowning she looked down only to be hit in the check by something. It didn’t hurt but it was annoying. She looked up and saw people shooting at her. “The enemy. OCS.” Emily thought to herself and cursed as she reached down for her rifle. She brought her rifle up and pulled the trigger. Nothing.

Emily pulled the trigger several times but the rifle didn’t fire. She tried to clear her rifle but the bolt didn’t move. Emily tried harder but it didn’t move. She yanked on it and broke it. Cursing she dropped the rifle and pulled out her pistol.

“Cover I need cover.” Emily thought to herself as she looked around. She was about five feet away from a sandbag wall. She turned in the barbwire and tried to run for it but while the barbwire didn’t hurt it did ketch on her clothes. She yanked and pulled until she was free. Looking up she saw a Marine waving for her. She nodded and ran for him. She jumped over the sandbags and landed next to him.

He said something to her but she couldn’t hear him “What?” She asked him. Her voice sounded really strange and muffled. He said something else then when she looked at him confused he handed her an M16 then he placed several clips on the sandbags by Emily. He turned back and started to fire his M249.

“Ah, that’s what he wants.” Emily thought to herself and cleared the M16. She popped up next to him and looked around for a target.

The Marine said something else and this time she heard him. She didn’t understand what he said but she did hear say something. He pointed at a building and Emily looked to see people on the rooftops. She nodded to him even though he was not looking and took aim through the scope and fired. “Man this is a nice scope. What kind is it? I wonder if I can get this on my M9.” Emily thought to herself as she watched the red and white turban covered head jerk and then disappear after she pulled the trigger on her borrowed gun. She searched the rooftop for another target occasionally firing at anything that looks good. Sometimes she hit her target sometimes she missed.

She randomly firing adding some suppression fire to the area when she noticed an OCS pop up with a grenade launcher and quickly fire at her. She grabbed the Marine next to her and pulled him down throwing herself over him. There was a loud bang and then the sandbag wall collapsed on top of them. She waited for a few seconds then stood up throwing the sandbags off them.

She looked down and checked on the Marine beside her. He was fine aside from looking shocked. She grabbed his collar and pulled him away from the hole in the wall. “Are you ok?” She asked him once they were safely behind some more sandbags.

He nodded and sat up. He grabbed his machine gun and with a twisted smile he turned back to the sandbag wall and started to return fire. Emily smiled “Marines!” She thought to herself shaking her head as she turned to add her fire to his. She was firing at the building not see anything to aim at when the wall of the building exploded with basketball sizes holes. Looking backward she saw a helicopter hovering high in the air behind her. Even as she was looking at it fired again. It sounded like a long fart. Emily looked back towards the building to watch it disintegrate.

Beside her, the Marine was cheering. The helicopter fired again destroying another building. Emily grabbed the Marine again and dragged him down behind cover. The helicopter fire two more times before flying off. Emily climbed off the Marine and looked over the wall. She was awed with the destruction. All the buildings in front of them were demolished.

The Marine cursed beside her. “I love my job.” He said looking at her laughing.

“You're crazy.” She told him shaking her head. The Marine just laughed and slapped Emily on the arm and readjusted his machine gun on the wall.

She stayed for around an hour before she was recalled back to the command center. Someone handed her another M9 rifle. They gave her a few hours off to get cleaned up and some rest. She grabbed a MRE and ate in her room. She climbed into her bed with a sigh and went to sleep.

She woke up several hours later to an explosion. She jumped out of bed and looked out the window. No one looked concerned but Emily grabbed her stuff and headed out. All three of the QRV’s were parked with their crews sitting around looking bored.

She adjusted her new M9 on her shoulder. It had metal sights on it instead of her scope that she had on her last gun. She had recovered her old rifle before she left. The reason she was unable to fire the weapon was that it was bent in a shallow half circle. When she showed it to the Marine sergeant in charge of the armory he had whistled and asked if he could hang it up in his armory. Emily had just shrugged and told him he could anything he wanted to do with it. She didn’t care.

According to the crew that drove her earlier, the explosion was caused by a bomber vest. The guy was standing in the front row and knocked Emily nearly thirty feet backwards. The bomb injured several Marines who were behind sandbag walls including the Captain and the Sergeant who had called her in to be an interpreter. The bomber also killed everyone who was trying to surrender.

There was no calls for the rest of the day and none that night. The word came down that the other two Marine companies were almost completed clearing their sectors. Command expected that the OCS had one more huge push left in them.

It never came. The city of Rudbar was officially retaken after nine and half days. Two days later Emily and all the main type supers were pulled out of the city