DEFCON Year Two

Chapter 2

After a month of non-stop strategic bombing against military-related targets in Russia and China, the US and its allies turned their eyes to Syria after successfully invading Belarus with some help from the Bielorussian Resistance, which needed to be taken for the Allies to have total control over the Mediterranean Sea, which would lead them to control the Black Sea and the Caucasus.

Among the troops involved was the American 6th US Marine Division, comprising 20,000 personel. And one of those was none other than Norrie Vastano, who was by now a battle-hardened veteran, as were many US Marines. Norrie was indeed involved in the invasion of Syria, which would use the US-controlled Conoco oil field and the borders with Iraq and Jordan as a staging area.

Norrie then boarded the LAV-25 alongside many US Marines, who had boarded M10 Bookers, JLTVs, motorcycles and other LAVs before being joined by US Army mechanized forces comprising Bradley vehicles, M10 Bookers, JLTVs, HEMTT trucks, M939 trucks and M1A2 Abrams tanks since the US Military was expecting the Syrian military to oppose fierce resistance to the US and allied forces.

Once everyone was seated and had their seatbelt buckled, the USMC vehicles joined their US Army counterparts. The plan involved the Allied forces to protect both flanks of the US forces. And those US forces were tasked with taking Damascus, thus contradicting the US Marines' role as an amphibious force since their role was now to spearhead the main forces.

Norrie then felt the LAV moving before she and the other Marines looked by the viewports of the vehicle, seeing Kurdish soldiers mounted on pickup trucks and US-provided Humvees following the Allied forces. And Norrie understood the Kurdish soldiers were actually accompanied by US special operations units who acted as advisors and liaison teams.

After some time driving from the US-controlled Kurdistan, the column stopped before Norrie and the other infantry troops dismounted the vehicles to fight on foot. That meant Norrie and her fellow US Marines were going to act as bodyguards for the vehicles alongside Kurdish soldiers, who also left their vehicles to operate on foot. Norrie then spotted several Syrian soldiers setting up an ambush through the scope of her M27 rifle. She motioned her men to run to both sides of the road without even waiting authorization from the higher ups. In many militaries, this would lead her and her fellow Marines to be court-martialed. But not in the US Marine Corps, since individual on-the-flight decision was encouraged.

"Enemy spotted!" Norrie yelled.

"Affirmative! Engage!" The commander replied.

Norrie and her fellow Marines therefore fired their rifles at the entrenched Syrian soldiers before a USMC M10 Booker came on the road and fired a HEAT round at the Syrian pillbox, destroying it and killing the Syrian soldiers inside before Norrie and her fellow Marines captured the surrendering survivors. Norrie and other US Marines then advanced alongside the armored vehicles while Kurdish troops checked the buildings for the enemy.

Suddenly, machine gun fire erupted from the buildings on the square, forcing the Marines to take cover. The M10 Bookers and M1A2 Abrams came from both sides of the square alongside Army infantry and Bradley vehicles. The assault guns and tanks blasted the enemy machine guns with HEAT rounds. Norrie witnessed the Army soldiers and other Kurdish troops securing the buildings, killing many dozens of Syrian troops but capturing hundreds more. And Norrie watched the baffled Syrian soldiers looking at the motorcycle-riding American and Allied forces, expecting them to be slow-moving at a sluggish speed instead of being very mobile and fast-moving with lots of autonomy in their command structure.

Meanwhile, the US Army troops in Belarus were preparing to invade Russia proper. But first they needed to consolidate their own positions as well as get more reinforcements. Their second mission was to oust every Russian troops from the East of Ukraine to reach this first goal. Among the US ground troops involved were Flint Murdoch and Amy Pollard.