A single 7.62x51mm armor piercing round is devastating to the human body. Even certain body armors from other alien races stand no match against a tritanium penetrator. It slices through ceramic plates like paper and goes through liquid armor like water. 

Now imagine it flying into a PRF soldier with no armor.

Caxe still had her eye behind her 8x scope, watching.

"Did you get him?" I asked her.

She lowered her rifle and nodded.

"Got him, sarge," I relayed on the squad comms.

"Nice work. Get back down here. We're moving out," Jackal said.

By the time we made our way back downstairs,  members of the second platoon led by Lt. Lipton had already linked up with our squad. Lipton was down on one knee with Jackal, talking about something on the holographic projector on his chest.

As Caxe and I got closer, we could hear what they were saying. 

"Almost all of the entrances are cleared of them, we reckoned we took out an entire company of RPA as we pushed through here" Lipton said, "How many bodies did you count?"

"Too many, sir," Jackal answered, "We took on two to three companies worth of men before we entered. My squad just took out a platoon ahead."

Lipton and his boys looked at the way where 30 men were standing and shooting at us. Now it was just littered with dead PRF soldiers and weapons.

"Goddamn, good shooting." Lipton said, "How's your squad?"

"We just lost a rifle," Jackal said, pointing at Midnight who had an M-5 in his hand, "it saved his arse from turning into a mush pie."

"You good? Private?" Lipton asked Midnight.

"Good to go sir," Midnight replied.

Then suddenly, there was slight tingling sensation on the back of my neck. 

"Woah," I said. 

"Friendlies in the AO," McCord said, motioning to the the back of his neck.

Everyone else had the same idea. It was our nano neural implants that were getting pinged. It sends a very minuscule shock to our nervous system and can be triggered when a friendly within 50m sends a signal to other friendly infantry in the vicinity. This gives the signal recipient the exact location of the sender via the HUD.

A blue dot formed at the direction where the enemy platoon once stood. A dozen or so USF soldiers approached slowly.

"Must be the boys from 3rd Platoon," Lipton said.

Jackal reached up to his ear, "Sitrep Yuri."

The boys from 3rd Platoon reached us, one of them yelling, "Whoever did all the shooting for us, you guys rock!"

"Hold tight, I'll send a fireteam to your position," Jackal said and turned towards our squad, "McCord, take a team with you. First floor, Edom Food Court, go."

"What going on sergeant?" Lipton asked.

"2-1 is pinned, 2 KIA, one wounded," Jackal replied.

McCord looked to us, "Frost, Jackson and Amber," he said, "On me."

"McCord," Lipton said, "I'll attach a fireteam with you, private," he turned his head to face his unit and called four men out of his platoon to join us.

I applied pressure to the magazine release and gently removed the magazine to check my the ammo count. Using the weight of the magazine itself, I figured it had at least fifteen rounds before slipping it back into my rifle. Next, giving my chest rig a quick feel, I'd reckoned I've already used up half my ammo load for the operation.

"Frost! What the hell are you doing?!" McCord yelled, already moving, "Let's go!"

"Just checking my ammo count," I replied, before trailing behind him the other fireteam.

The said fireteam consisted of two automatic riflemen armed with M850 SAWs and two riflemen armed with M12A1 carbines; enough firepower to cut down a platoon's worth of PRF.

"Take the lead, McCord!" one of them yelled as we quickly picked our way up the elevator.

------------------------

"Johnson!" A scruffy bearded man walked towards Johnson, with a M32 Infantry Combat Rifle slung across his chest, "My favorite captain!"

"Mendoza," Johnson greeted the Marine with open arms, "How are we doing?"

As they embraced in quick manly hug in the center of the hangar bay, Mendoza spoke, "I got most of my boys all lined up watching the hangar doors. Two squads watching the mess hall and another squad watching the medical department."

"Engineering department?" Johnson asked.

"We got a squad of Raiders over there," Mendoza said, "You know I've got no OPCON over those nutjobs."

"Very well," Johnson said.

"With all due respect, the captain's place is up on the bridge," Mendoza said.

Johnson unholstered his Xiphos, "Not this captain," he added, "Not when those scumbags want to board this ship."

Mendoza nodded and smiled, "That's why I like you captain."

Then Johnson's earpiece rang it. It was Jameson, "Cap, they're closing in, 1000m. "

"Everything ready?" He asked.

"Ready to send them to the void," Jameson replied.

"Good," Johnson said before turning to Mendoza, "Alright, take me through the defenses."

Johnson scanned the hangar bay from left to right, up and down. There were at least thirty of Earth's finest watching the hangar doors and at least three of them were armed with MARS weapon systems.

"We got twenty claymores set along the door," Mendoza said, "A couple C-4s strapped onto the weapons caches, and a guy on one of the Gatling guns near in that Eagle." He pointed at the UH-10 Black Eagle dropship on the left side of the hangar.

"Why the C-4s?" Johnson asked.

Mendoza replied, "Oh, those? Once the hangar doors open, we'll let Newton's first law do the job."

Knowing what was Mendoza's plan, Johnson nodded with approval, "Smart move, where do we go?"

Mendoza handed Johnson and Richard two carbiners, both connected with cables, "I suggest finding a spot next to the Eagle, it should keep you from fire."

"Thanks lieutenant," Johnson replied and took the carbiners before handing them over to Richard.

As the captain and his first mate proceeded to the Eagle dropship, they were greeted by a rather happy Marine, "Hello sirs," the Marine behind the gatling gun said, "Is that a crossbow?"

"Yes," Richard answered.

"You're bringing a crossbow to a gunfight?" The Marine asked.

"You got a problem with that?" Richard replied.

"No sir. It's just that a crossbow is an odd choice of weaponry," the Marine added.

Richard smiled, "Oh you have no idea what this thing can do in the vacuum of space."

Then Johnson's earpiece rang again, it was Jameson, "Cap! They're closing in fast."

"You know what to do, Jameson," the captain replied.

"Aye, sir," Jameson replied.

--------------
The bridge

The once static debree exploded violently as the probes self-destructed, sending thousands of lethal fragmentation towards the enemy gunships and dropships. Jameson could count at least 5-6 hostile crafts disappeared from view.

"Andy, get the starboard Phantoms on those Caymans," Jameson said.

"You got it dude," Andy from Jameson's weapons team replied.

It was the first time Jameson was given the con. And it put a lot of weight in his gut. He had to make sure that enough ships were taken out so that they won't overrun the ship. A lot of lives are at stake, and it all depended on his shoulders.

The starboard Phantom CIWS guns opened up, sending a total of 300,000 20mm HE rounds within a three second burst. The four RIM-611 short range rifled rocket turrets fired into the the enemy formation, rapidly picking off the Cayman gunships.

In return the Cayman gunships began opening fire while the dropships traced closely behind them. Ballistic fire from the gunships were easily stopped by the Stormbringer's shields. The rocket barrages on the other hand were not easily stopped. The laser turrets did their best to stop as many as they could, but a considerable amount of them got through the point defense turrets.

The hull of the Stormbringer took a dozen hits on the portside. Two of the Phantom guns and one of the RIM-116 turrets were taken out of the fight. However, the remaining guns kept blasting away as the fire-control AI established a firing solution to compensate for the lost defenses.

"I count twelve hits. And we lost three weapon systems," Jenkins said.

"Casualties?" Jameson asked.

"Weapons department reports two wounded!" Rebecca yelled acrosd the bridge.

Jameson said, "Andy! Let those MS-2s loose!"

"Working on it," Andy replied, "VLS firing!"

Almost twenty MS-2 missiles fired away into the Caymans' flight paths, intercepting and destroying most of them. Some of the Caymans managed to evade the incoming missiles by deploying flares, but they were immediately gunned down by the Phantoms as they got closer and closer.

"Two Caymans remaining. Crap they just fired another barrage!" Jenkins said.

This time the barrage wasn't too bad. Jameson could see at least 2-3 impacts on the Phantom guns.

"Another Phantom down!" Jenkins said.

The remaining starboard Phantoms replied with their another barrage of their own. Sending more than 3000 rounds into the two remaning Caymans. The CIWS picked off at least six dropships that were behind them.

"How many enemy dropships left?" Jameson asked.

"All gunships neutralised. I count 4 dropships heading towards the hangar bay, another 2 heading for the rear thrusters," Jenkins said.

"Andy! Get the rear guns on them!" Jameson ordered.

"Already on it!" Andy replied.

Jameson tapped his earpiece, "Cap, you got 4 dropships heading for the hangar!"

"Nice work Jameson, we'll take it from here," Johnson replied.