The Sweeper Squadron/Guard Retrieval Team were on the prowl, they've slowly tracked their target down to a remote forest besides the Missouri River. There were multiple openings in the forest that allowed for vehicles to enter, the squad followed the faint marking of tire tracks while using the trees for cover.

"No oak trees here either." Sweeper touched the tree in front of her.

"Something important we need to know about oak trees?" Dealer asked.

"Oh... no. I was just talking to myself buuuuuut if you spot anything made of oak, like maybe a door, tell me about it."

"Well we won't find it out here, that shit's rare and expensive."

They continued to make their way through, guns at the ready, and steeled themselves for any upcoming battle. But doubt slipped its way into Dealer's mind.

"What if we followed the wrong trail?"

"How could there be a wrong trail? No one in this region has a vehicle but us and the kidnappers." Sweeper pointed out.

"Sure... but what if someone else decided to have a fun camping trip and drove all the way out here."

"You do know we're in the middle of a war, right?"

"People have done dumber things..."

Just then Reaper, who was taking point, raised her hand in the air signalling them to stop. She pointed downhill to a large opening with a truck and not just any truck, a truck with who appeared to be Guard sitting in the back. Three strangers with weapons were also standing around which they deduced were the kidnappers and, from Reaper's estimation, there should be at least two more that were not in plain view.

"Would you look at that, we got the wrong trail." Sweeper voice was oozing with sarcasm.

"Shut up and get behind the rock." Dealer crawled behind the large rock.

Sweeper approached and stood next to the rock, it was big but not enough to cover her.

"Get down!" Dealer said in a hushed voice.

"I can't crouch..."

"You have to unless you want to be spotted! You're back exploding was probably a joke by the Captain." Dealer tugged on Sweeper's wrist.

Having to keep her back straight was a pain but it was necessary to prevent the kitchen pipe lodged in her back from breaking, or was it? Sweeper took in a deep breath, this was the moment of truth, her spine had stopped her from assisting her team in the basketball game but it would not intrude on rescuing Guard. She first bend her knees, her head was still peeking over the rock, then she relaxed her back as she leaned forward to get closer to the ground. Her eyes were closed the whole time but no sounds of popping or snapping could be heard.

"Would you look at that, no spine exploding." Dealer remarked.

"Wow, I'm not dead!"

"Shh." Reaper had to quiet the two down as she observed the truck. "I can confirm that is Guard in the back and it's just those three here."

"Okay... so what now?" Dealer wondered if they should just start shooting.

"We need someone to distract them or they'll use Guard as a hostage, we can pull them away from the area and the rest of us can go and retrieve Guard. We'll meet up at where we parked the jeep." Sweeper laid out a plan.

"I can run distraction." Reaper raised her hand up.

"Good, let's put this plan into action."

Downhill, Richard was getting a talking-to about being more careful with drinks in a vehicle.

"I'm sorry sir, I'm REALLY sorry!" Richard was practically on his knees begging for forgiveness.

Hallengir rubbed his forehead to calm down. "As long as you don't do it again... clean up this mess Laurent."

As Richard rushed to grab a towel from the back, the Sergeant turned to Guard. "Sorry about that. Can you tell us more about what the UCNA are doing here?"

"I think I told you guys all I know." Guard said, the only thing Command detailed about the UCNA was that they were also here for resource extraction.

"The higher-ups have been getting more brazen with trying to mine aeternilite further away from the country... and if the UCNA were thinking of doing the same we would eventually encounter each other." Hallengir muttered, he looked back up to see Guard eyeing him curiously. "Oh don't mind me, I was just thinking aloud."

A sharp crack could be heard in the distance, gunfire. The three men in black immediately stopped what they were doing to grab their weapons and take cover. Richard looked at his Sergeant for their next plan of action but he only raised one finger up to his lip telling him to be silent. A second sharp crack traveled loudly across the woods, it was closer this time.

"Jha stay here to watch over the android, Laurent you're with me." Hallengir ordered.

The two men slowly headed off into the direction of the gunshot going cover by cover. Cid remained in his spot and looked over at the truck, Guard had ducked behind the panel and couldn't be seen from where he was positioned.

Guard was lying on his back staring at the treetops, a decent amount of sunlight broke through that he could feel its warmth. He wondered about the gunshots and how abnormal they were, it felt more like random firing than someone trying to hit something. As he continued thinking about it, a faint knocking caught his attention.

"Hey Guard, hey Guard. We're here to rescue you." A hushed voice called out to him, Guard crawled to the other side of the back of the truck.

"It's me, Dealer."

"You guys do care!" Guard smiled as he looked over the panel to see Dealer and Sweeper crouched behind the truck.

"Yeah yeah just quiet down."

"We're going to sneak out of here, Reaper is currently distracting them but don't worry she'll be fine as long as she keeps her distance." Sweeper explained.

Another loud gunshot could be heard which was then followed by a rapid spray of gunfire.

"Okay... they may have found her but she's a professional, so let's worry about us first." Sweeper motioned for the two to follow her.

Guard hopped out of the vehicle, he peeked over to where Cid was and saw that he was looking in the direction of the firefight. He felt bad for leaving him there but he was sure that if he explained the situation to Savage that this whole thing would work out in the end, unless Reaper killed one of them. Guard snapped that thought out of his mind, those two were pros as well so they wouldn't get hurt too badly. The trio stealthily made there back to the rock.

"They didn't do anything to you did they?" Sweeper comforted Guard. "I mean other than shooting and kidnapping you."

"N-no... but they're pretty decent people."

"What? I don't think they can be half-way decent if their idea of approaching a girl is with a shotgun blast." Dealer joked.

"About that..." Guard suddenly went quiet before speaking up again. "I'm not sure if you're hazing the new guy or you just don't know but... I'm a guy... I mean like I'm male."

"You're a dude?" Dealer expressed her surprise. "We genuinely thought you were a girl."

"This is why we need a dress code, males should have pants and females should have skirts." Sweeper said.

"Hell no! That's just you're skirt fetish showing." Dealer exclaimed.

"I find pants restricting, it can't compare to the freedom and flexibility of a skirt."

"Really? The feeling of putting on a tight fitting jean is great and they have pockets." Guard explained his point of view.

"You're both crazy. Baggy pants are the way to go, you get the freedom of a skirt without leaving your legs bare to the cruel environment." Dealer missed the days of not being forced to wear a uniform. The gunfire in the distance escalated bringing the discussion to a close. "Oh shit, right... forgot about that."

The group left their rocky cover and hurried to the jeep. Strangely, Sweeper was lagging behind the two causing Dealer to turn around and ask her what was wrong.

"I-I can't stand up!" Sweeper's body was stuck at an angle.

"Oh right! We told you about not bending over didn't we?" Guard ran up to check on Sweeper, who couldn't change from her crouched position.

"I didn't hear any snapping sound so I thought I would be fine!"

"Aww crap, this is bad. Uh Guard can you carry her back to the jeep. I'll lead the way." Dealer gestured for them to follow her.

The sound of gunfire died down as they ran towards their destination. Eventually they exited the forest leaving the trees behind as they traveled on the green plain, the river just in their sights. Guard had his hands full carrying Sweeper but that did not slow him down as he kept pace with Dealer, though that does say something about Dealer's athletic ability.

"Quick, put me down." Sweeper asked as they reached the riverbank.

"The jeep is just behind those rocks!" Dealer pointed towards a group of rocks that barely hide the vehicle. "And before you ask, it was all we got to work with."

The group took position around the jeep and waited for Reaper's return. Though the rocks couldn't cover the jeep they could cover the androids pretty well. Dealer and Guard were on lookout for their missing comrade.

"I don't want to live the rest of my life like this." Sweeper was in the back trying to find a way to fix her spine.

"D-don't worry about it once we get back, me and Savage can repair you. I think..." Guard whispered the last part.

"What was that?"

"Argh! Nothing, it was nothing!"

"It sounded like something breaching the surface of the water, that's weir- WAHHH!!!" A loud splash alerted Dealer as something pulled Sweeper from behind into the river.

Dealer pointed her gun at the disturbed surface of the water while Guard called out to Sweeper hoping that she would reply. A few seconds pass by before Sweeper popped to the surface, her limbs flailing around. Something else also came up with her, it appeared to be a person and they were holding onto Sweeper tightly.

"Who the hell are you!" Dealer tried to aim her weapon at the stranger but the panicking android blocked her view.

"Caught you by surprise didn't I?" The stranger laughed.

"Who are you?" Guard tried his best to remain calm.

"What! You guys don't remember me? We played basketball just yesterday!"

"Y-you what?"

"Yeah... we played basketball yesterday when we were at the UCNA base... which could only mean that this person is a UCNA soldier!" Dealer said with conviction. "Also by we I meant me and the others, you weren't there Guard."

"I wanted to play basketball..." Guard sulked.

"Hey! I still got your pal here so you better not try anything funny or I'm, uh, going to drown her!" The UCNA soldier gripped tighter on Sweeper's neck.

"I first thought you were, like, a mutant or something but they don't come up this far. We didn't get to tell each other our names last time, mine's Dealer." Dealer still had her gun aimed and tried to buy time to think of a plan, Sweeper's spine being stuck at that one angle meant she couldn't swim properly so they couldn't depend on her breaking free by herself.

"The name's Catherine, you better remember it!"

"Don't worry Sweeper we'll save you!" Guard shouted.

The sound of gurgling caused Catherine to look down at her hostage, most of her face was submerged underwater, after realizing this she pulled her up causing Sweeper to cough out large amount of river water.

"Urgh... I thought I was going to die..." Sweeper coughed. "Anyways what was I saying... oh right, help! I'm being held hostage and I think this person is naked!" Sweeper felt two shapely figures pressed up against her.

"Oh no! The UCNA are using exhibitionists, Dealer we have to do something!" Guard cried out.

"I'm still wearing a bra and panties!" Catherine shouted back.

"That doesn't make it any better!" Dealer said to the mostly naked river lady.

"Shut up! All you have to do is listen to my demands!"

"Okay, what are your demands?" Dealer asked.

"Uhh... bye!" Catherine dragged Sweeper underwater and the two disappeared into the murky depths.

Guard ran up to the edge of the riverbank and tried to dive in but Dealer caught up to him in time to hold him back.

"Let me go Dealer! We got to save Sweeper from that exhibitionist!"

"We have to head back to base! Don't forget Reaper's going to bring a lot of heat our way!" Dealer struggled to restrain Guard.

"What's happening? Where's Sweeper?" Reaper snuck up behind the two of them.

"Ahhhh! Oh its you... I'll explain everything on the way back." Dealer ran up to the jeep and started it up. Guard took one last look at the river before entering the jeep with Reaper. With their rescue mission completed they drove towards the base with the same number of people that left in search of Guard.