Location: Camp Utah, Utah, United States of America

Units: 22nd Special Air Service, British Army. 82nd Airborne, US Army.

Date: May 2nd, 2021 CE

The two Special Air Service members stood facing their American recruits. All of them gripping with M4A1 carbines with slings around their bodies. The Lieutenant stood in front with his two soldiers behind him to attention. Each of them wore a plate carrier fitted with up to six spare magazines and kept their helmets fixed.

The American Lieutenant was the first to speak, "So, Sir. We've all heard the pitch about needing a team better than the Green Berets and a step above special forces, but what will we be doing?"

Mclaw placed his hands on the table, "Well soldiers, our missions will typically be extermination or protection but I might throw in something special now and then."

To the Lieutenant's left, the American put up his hand, Jonathon nodded and the soldier spoke, "by saying extermination, I don't believe you mean 2nd rate Generals right?"

A smirk formed on Mclaw's face, "Correct," he paused before continuing, "everyone knows the 10 leaders of NZA, which the UN-designated as High-Payoff Targets last month, we will be responsible for dealing with them and the Propagandist as well."

"God... we really have to go deal with the Propagandist? he gives me the creeps," one of the soldiers said.

"Don't worry, we'll be behind a sniper rifle when he dies," Hunt retorted, "Even if we have to get close, he's just a creep who gets a kick out of laughing at dead people, how strong could he possibly be?"

Mclaw raised an eyebrow, "Well anyway, back to the mission at hand. Currently, we haven't got the full team together and the next two are beyond enemy lines."

"Who are they?" Richards asked.

"Corporals Turner and Mounts, of the 184th," Mclaw responded, "Your Government said if we wanted them we would have to find them ourselves."

Richards's eyebrow twitched, "So this unit is only going to have seven of us?"

"Nope," Mclaw paused bringing up a small electronic pad, "We have two South Africans, two Canadians, three Indians and a Swiss. They are all currently close to the Canadian-USA Border training together, they will meet us on the evac up to Washington state."

"I heard there's not much activity up there?" one of the soldiers in the back said. This was Private Keel York, nicknamed Alvin. Nicknamed after one of the most decorated US Army soldiers of WW1 and Medal of Honor recipient, Sergeant Alvin York, he carried the heavy burden of bearing such an important name. Being naturally gifted in navigation he was capable of learning exactly where he was on a map in no more than five seconds in the right conditions causing Mclaw to take interest in the American.

Mclaw nodded to the comment, "Correct, but they've been killing NZA since the beginning of the war and all of them are highly trained specialists," Mclaw paused changing the subject, "Anyway your gear is in the TSV and I guess you'll be using your M4's."

Mclaw was referring to the Husky Tactical Support vehicles which had been dropped off no more than a few minutes ago.

The airborne troops looked at each other before the leader tilted his head in confusion, "New gear?"

***

A few months ago, a select few people were informed of the new reforms that were supposed to come to the British Army in late 2021. This project was known as 'Future Soldier', Mclaw was one of the few to look over the document and even had some influence over the creation of the proposed UK Rangers Regiment. During the first attacks, the first pieces of gear for the future soldier program were thrown at the Special Air Service and Jonathon Mclaw. One of the machines proposed in that was a small wrist pad. On it, it displayed several applications; a built-in navigation system, drone controls, and instant communication with command. At one point, there was even a proposed 'dream feature', where soldiers could check their ammunition count on it, which would eventually lead to a HUD but this failed over and over again because it usually involved a large wire connecting the machine and a computer on the rifle or complicated sensors.

Each member strapped one of these devices to their arms and tightened it to hold it in place. The next item was a small drone which could be hidden in a small grenade pouch and fly out whenever needed to conduct reconnaissance.

The final few items confused the Americans slightly. It was a set of sheathed blades, in total, there were two. One was extremely small and had no grips on it, it was just a sharpened sheet of metal. On the other hand, the second one had several carvings engraved into it along with chips on the side. The chips seemed to be intentionally made and extremely sharp.

"What are these for, Sir?" Richards asked

"Stabbing people?" Mclaw said sarcastically, before answering properly, "The bigger blade is for hand-to-hand combat or when your weapons jam or run out of ammo. The smaller one, however..."

He pulled a set of boots from under one of the JLTV's seats, "Are for these."

Mclaw pushed a knife through the side of the boot and it slipped in, returning to normal, "This is a last-case scenario weapon as well as a concealed blade, "When you step on the toe of the boot with pressure..." he trailed off demonstrating by placing his hands inside the boots. As the boots pressed together, a small blade was pushed out the front of the sole. He then grabbed it, tugging onto it, "if you lose your first blade, you should fight with it between your middle and index fingers," he demonstrated again.

"Will we really use these, sir?" the third American said, this was Staff Sergeant Gibson, he was of African-American descent and known to like training in hand-to-hand combat. It was said he could kick a door straight off its hinges and wouldn't allow anyone into the line of fire before him.

Mclaw stared at the boots in his hands, "Hopefully not, but you should always be able to improvise," he continued onto the final machine, "This is the big one, one that will change the war."

He pulled out a large steel box connected to a set of backpack straps. It looked similar to the old Vietnam AN/PRC-77 radio. The 82nd Airborne soldiers looked confused.

Hunt decided to finally speak, "Captain..." he started before sighing, "fine I'll do it. This is the Platoon Usage: Uncrackable Radio System, a joint venture by the British and Americans. It will replace the SINCGARS and the Bowman in the next two to three years."

"PUURS huh... So how does it work?" Richards asked.

Mclaw, "It works like a standard radio system, input your frequency for example we've been issued the frequency 7.4 frequency," he paused to input it into a small screen on the back, "Then you press enter and your frequency is set," He then took a small microphone that was hanging on the side, "There is a button on the side of the microphone which decides whether it listens to you or not. And one final thing, these radios can only communicate with those of the same version, so it won't ever be able to communicate with other radio types."

York was the first to respond, "So what's the difference between the SINCGARS and the PUURS?"

"Well, for starters, the SINCGARS can be cracked by someone without a radio system," Mclaw responded, "I overlooked the testing process myself. We brought in several white and black hats, some by force, to test it."

Richards frowned at Mclaw, "No time for ethics in war, then..."

Mclaw nodded, "We do what it takes to survive. Anyway, put your boots on and, uh," he paused thinking, "Who wants to carry the radio," in response, no one put their hand up.

Gibson shook his head, watching the other US soldiers turn to him, "Fine, I'll do it."

"Thank you for volunteering," Mclaw said, handing him the box.

Gibson placed it on the floor next to him and everyone got ready to roll out.

***

Mclaw was in the driver's seat of the front Husky Tactical support vehicle along with Gibson and Richards. This Husky was painted light grey with small patches of a darker grey dotted around to break up the image of the vehicle. On the side, it had a symbol of two crossed scythes with a hooded figure's upper torso and head in front. This same symbol was engraved on Mclaw's M1911.

The second vehicle had York driving with Hunt in the passenger seat, it had the same grey camouflage pattern as the first vehicle but no symbol on the side. Both vehicles were armed with M2 Browning Machine Guns more commonly known as the .50 Cal.

The vehicles raced down the abandoned Route 15 Highway. Now and then a large group of blown-up or abandoned cars appeared perfectly lined up across the road, these were strewn across the country made to cause chaos while travelling, and slow down any troop or civilian movements.

Mclaw spoke through the built-in radio system, "The government have given us the location of the two soldiers we need to find, these soldiers are Corporal Mounts and Corporal Turner, remember the names I'm gonna quiz you on them when we get out. These soldiers are part of the 184th Infantry Regiment which should be located somewhere in Visalia, California according to the info, that clear?"

Hunt responded sarcastically over the radio, "Yes sir, but I'm sure our American friends know what state we are in."

Mclaw turned around in his seat and scowled out the back window, "Funny."

The journey continued, it was several hours before anything interesting happened. Eventually, they entered Las Vegas. Jonathon had been there once before, back in the 90s. He then ended up losing $100 and gave up then swore he would never go there again.

Mclaw focused on the buildings around him as he entered the city, the density of the buildings began to increase the deeper they went in, "Rifles up, expect contact," he said coldly.

"I'll get on the fifty," Richards nodded toward the M2 mounted on the roof before pulling back the cocking handle on his M4, as he let it go it slammed forward chambering a round.

Richards jumped on the M2 Browning hiding his head between the steel plates around him while attempting to watch the debris and few remaining buildings scattered around the highway. The atmosphere felt heavy to all of them, something was off...

Suddenly, a scream came from a nearby parking lot followed by a singular gunshot. The sound of not-too-far-off rounds flew through the air, but no bullets hit the ground around the vehicles. The bullets weren't directed at them?

"Where's that coming from?" Mclaw asked.

York replied first, "Two building roofs, straight south!" he said through the radio before questioning, "What are we going to do?"

Mclaw sat and thought for a second, scratching his chin he decided to speak, "Personally, I'd feel guilty leaving civvies to die and also we can whittle down the enemies' numbers along the way."

"Sounds good to me, sir!" Hunt said, "What's the plan?"

Mclaw snickered, "Oh I have a good one this time."

***

Gunfire blazed from the rooftop. Nearly every weapon style was unique on this site, AKs, AR-15s, AUGs, G36 and even Famas were just some of the semi-automatic rifles present at this battle. Other members of this building were either watching the stairways with smaller weapons or cleaning their weapons.

These soldiers weren't enlisted with the US military but Militia fighters protecting their homeland. Unsurprisingly not a single one of their weapons was bought by Government funds but rather brought from home to fight their invading enemies. The Las Vegas militia was high on American propaganda and ready to take the fight to the NZA. But first, they had to kick the enemy out of their city. This is what they were doing right now.

No more than 50 metres away, on the neighbouring rooftop, men in skull masks lined up against the wall. Each of them was a real piece of work, a horrific monster beneath the mask. A Death Squad. They had been trained over several years, selected from the best of anyone living on the Oceania continent. Each of them was equipped with high-end ACR-3s and Glock 17 Gen 5's. They were some of the hardest soldiers and a tough challenge for any special forces soldier to beat.

"Peaker spotted, Sector One-Bravo, open fire," An NZA spotter said softly just so the sniper next to him could hear.

"Seen," the sniper replied, instantly letting off one shot. But no sound came, just a flash of light and lead shot out the barrel. A scream came from a singular militia combatant before the sound of the bullet filled the ears of the sniper.

This weapon was one of the NZA superweapons, the XRG19M5. With a maximum theorical kill range of 30 kilometres, this rifle was a beast with one hell of a kick if the sniper was standing unsupported. XRG19M5 is an acronym meant to hide what this weapon truly is; the eXperimental RailGun 19 Mark 5.

The M5 is a handheld squad variant of what was placed on the NZA battleship with a much smaller range. It also required the operator to carry a large battery pack backpack and a sidearm as the weapon had limited ammunition and was no good at close range.

This was one of the first field tests and it was a success at first.

On the rooftop across, the militiamen and women all were crawling along the floor terrified of what just happened to their comrade. The top half of their body evaporated in that one murderous shot. Limbs shot across the floor being the only part of what was once a body left. Blood started to soak the ground as the Americans realised that they could all die from that one rifle.

As the militiamen sat on the floor a door swung open.

Two men exited onto the roof, one dressed in full black and the other wearing British Multi-Terrain Pattern or more simply MTP. He carried an M16 rifle and a matt-black M1911 with a white symbol on the side.

"Jett! They're from the government. We have reinforcements," the man in black called out.

The leader of the group on the roof, called Jett Clampton, replied, "Get the hell down. They have a sniper!"

The man from the government moved his head slightly and a cone-shaped projectile flew past his head, "Impressive," he whispered, "I want one."