"Now let me make it clear, you are, James, to unify this broken unit. Bring up their morale, and take back the headlands of Korris. Everything has been final, and everyone is on deck. This is no stand still not like a few months ago. They are pushing, we need to push harder."

James looked out to Pesh, and gave an assuring nod.

"I hope to see you soon friend, watch yourself."

"I hope so too." The side hatch locked for the APC and the other party were off to the 4th Brigade.

James had looked around in wonder. It was raining pretty moderately, but by the sight of the clouds, it was certain to get worse. He pulled out his I.T. and got a view of where the Defense Ordinance Unit was positioned. They were not far, for James and his company could hear the gunfire.

"Lets go."

The team of five hurried on foot to the Defense Ordinance Team. They bypassed war torn buildings and vacant vehicles. Some pits in the ground had emit smoke of recent shelling. The rain was picking up, and it was getting much harder to tell the difference between rain drop and gunfire.

"We are close, hold on! We have to announce our presence. They're probably real antsy, due to their current position."

They were huddled in a line on a corner of a building. The D.O.U. were located directly west of the building they were huddled by.

James in motion put his hand out from the corner of the building and hollered,

'BLUE-"

Immediately the chinking of machine guns and rifles began firing and spraying down on James's position. He backed up hard shoving Riley, Vienen, and Hanid nearly to a stumble. The opposite corner of the wall James and his companions took cover behind lay riddled with shreds of bullet streaks and holes. The dust of the impact of bullets hitting the wall calmed down as the shooters ceased their attack.

"Fuck!" Exclaimed Vienen as he got up, "They are real antsy alright."

James slowly approached the edge of the corner and yelled,

"I would have done the same thing! But it wouldn't have been wise to fire at your commanding officer!"

James looked back at the group and they had faces of grief.

"Blue!"

"Menace!" Exclaimed the former attacker.

"We are coming out now! Don't shoot!...... Please!"

James slowly moved out from the corner, and the rest followed behind. They continued on to the middle of the street and could see the heavy emplacements the DOU had installed. As they walked towards the emplacements, Riley took note of the severely destroyed wall that stood to their left.

"They should probably take more consideration in conserving ammo."

A Lieutenant and his sergeants walked out from the defense emplacements and greeted James. They immediately saluted upon presence.

"We apologize for that sir! Lieutenant Banks Reporting! We've been getting hit hard by militia, and Septem Spec Ops, we're all just tensed up."

"It's ok, at ease. Now please inform me the current situation with taking back the headlands."

"It's pretty bad sir. My men are getting killed and they have taken over our resource facilities, Anti Air weapons, and Radar stations located on those headlands. Standard Septem army units have pushed through the beaches in between the headlands. The Spec Ops and Militia is what's really killing us. Spec Ops units were deployed East of here by air, and the militia have been conducting random attacks with explosive weapons. I believe the Spec Op groups have been supplying the militia. Iv'e noticed they've acquired Septem issued weapons and gear, although they thought unmarking them would fool us."

"How many men you got?"

"Healthy enough for a fight? 92"

"How many dead?"

Lieutenant Banks faced to his left at a pile of body bags, with the Legion banner draped over it. He looked back at James,

"74 dead."

James looked around and took note of their base camp. It was degraded, but held up for as long as James was called upon to take command. Some men were limping from ammo to machine gun, many with bloody bandages and distressed looks on their faces. He looked behind himself to notice Riley, Vienen, and Hanid grouped in a discussion with some of the Defense Ordinance troops. A couple of chuckles and giggles, but the sound of rain and distant gunfire captured the mood.

He turned back to face Lieutenant Banks, he had a concerned look.

"but we got about 20 guys MIA out west by Korris headlands. We last heard from them holed up by some Clinic and boating shop. It's quite industrial there. We don't know if they've been captured or killed, hell they may be holding off. They were originally assigned to set up more emplacements of pillboxes and machine gun turrets but were attacked in the process, so we pulled back and they got caught in between."

James had the expression of suspicion.

"Why did you not assist your men caught in the crossfire Lieutenant?"

"It was chaos. The militia were shredding us from the buildings, we didn't know where to shoot. I would have gon---"

"--Lieutenant, I've come a long way in this world. You don't leave your men behind."

James had interrupted Lieutenant Banks, and it seemed as if everyone grew silent. The tension had built up. Lieutenant Banks stood with a straight, yet worried face. James continued,

"What you would have done, could have done, doesn't mean shit to those who are probably being tortured by the Squash at this moment. That's very dishonorable Lieutenant, get it together."

James swayed to his left as he spoke those final words, and continued in a hard walk on with Riley, Vienen, and Hanid following behind him. Lieutenant Banks stood for a few moments and carried on away with a defeated look.

James and company approached an engineer by what seemed like the motor pool of the base camp.

"Hey I need an update on your wheels, and tracks."

The rest of the engineers noticed the newly inducted District Commissioner and quickly stood at attention. The sound of a wrench hit the floor with a chime. Upon entering the makeshift motor pool, it seemed as though they were working on some partially damaged MACs (Mobile Attack Carrier) and Prypylon 7s. The Prypylon 7s were a standard tank of the LNO army. They were quick, reliable, and cheap, though they were not greatly armored, they excelled in infantry support and cavalry engagements.

These Prypylon tanks however were outfitted for defense duties, as they were issued to the DOT (Defense Ordinance Teams). They usually came standard with 76.2mm cannon Autoloaders, but this seemed to be replaced with an 40mm automatic gun. Not as powerful, but still destructive against infantry, and lighter armored vehicles.

"Ah... 40mm gun?"

Said James, the engineer responded,

"Yes sir, anything on the other side of this barrel is gonna have a bad day. 52 rounds per minute."

"And what of your MACs?"

"The MACs come standard, with a small bearing turret on top carrying a standard 7.62mm machine gun. But we do have 2 MACs outfitted with RFS (Rocket Firing System)."

"Good, now what is your name?"

"Corporal Tanint, sir"

"I need to know the number of MACs and Prypylons you have."

"Right, well we have 5 MACs available, and 3 Prypylons. We had 8 Prypylons and 10 MACs but, we've been getting hammered badly."

"Thank you Corporal Tanint."

The Corporal saluted and went on his way. James and the group stepped out from the garage. The clouds were opening up and the rain was less frequent. They began walking towards the Lieutenant to discuss their plan of engagement.

"Well at least the rain cleared up." Said Hanid cheerfully. Vienen looked side to side and stood in immediate confusion.

"Wait." Vienen said, "Where is Terem Stult?!"

They all stood wide eyed and looked around, James exclaimed,

"Did he get lost getting over to base camp? How the hell is that possible?"

"He probably got scared off when DOT were shooting at us."

James with a sigh, looked down and put his hand over his forehead in stress. The confusion was put on a halt, when the sound of a DOT troop hollering,

"There's a sniper!"