It's not the guns that scare me. It's not the bullets, the grenades...the blood or the gore. It's not men screaming for mothers they would never see again, or crying for a life they were scared to lose but would anyways. It wasn't the machines, or the enemy. It was even the bombs or the noise that scared me on the battlefield. It was when theings got quiet that I got nervous.

My name is Jacob LaPierre. I work for the United Nations Allied Military. I'm part of a Group of Three. Commando squad if you will, but slightly better trained. And, at this time in our world....I'm glad we're trained the way we are.

You see, several years ago, the Russians rose to power again as the USSRE. The United Soviet States of the Russian Empire.  They killed thousands of people in a bloody coup over eastern Europe. And now, war was being fought on a global scale. But in a different way. It was all technology and assassination. Very few outright battles.

My team was put into action a few years after that. We all belong to the major opponent to the USSRE. The British Commonwealth. My squad is Captial Squad. Everyone in our squad hails from their country's capital. I'm from Ottawa.

Jason Alexander is the Brit in our group. Tall and lanky, he's a lot stronger than he looks and one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's our ordenance specialist. He hails from London.

Gary "Gex" Ballard is an Aussie. Hailing from Sydney Austrailia Gex is a highly trained sniper an infilitration expert. All of us can do that sort of thing, but Gex is the best I've ever seen.

On this particular day we were stationed in New York City, at the UN Headquarters where Canadian Prime Minster Christopher Coxley was to deliver a joint speech with Secretary General Nickolas Gladoras. A Greek. 
They were to annouce the new CARD program together. The Canadian Adcanced Recon Detection program. A set of Send/Recieve towers located across North American that constantly are in communication with a wide-dispersal beam in Alaska which Canada had purchesed from the US several years ago.

The beam was focused across the bearing straight and connected to similar towers in Finland, China, India, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, effectively blanketing Russia in this detection web. Something they weren't happy about, which was understandable. But, the Commonwealth, the UN and their allies didn't care. The USSRE had to be moniored, and, besides, they'd find a way around it. But, for the time it worked, we'd be able to gather invaluable intelligence.

On this day, I pushed myself through the throngs of people in Times Square, and entered one of the aprtments near by. Sliding my sunglasses onto my face as I stepped out onto the roof, I activated the HUD built in and the com. "Ok guys, sitrep."

The com crackled as Jason contacted. "I'm near the podium. My HUD isn't picking anything up, and I can't see anything either."

"What are you carrying, Jason?" I asked, wondering what kind of ammuntion he had.

"Semi-Auto rifle, Commander, slotted bullets." His favorite. Slotted bullets were flat and round like a coin. They went in standing on their edge, then tumbled when they hit flesh, tearing a wound the size of a truck out the back.

"I'm good, Commander. Hyper-Velocity Magnetic Rifle online. No targets as of yet." That was Gex. He, like me, preferred the new technology of Magneticaly Accelerated Projectiles. An open barrel fitted with magnetic lines propelled a projectile at high speeds. In essence, it was a rail-gun.

"Understood, everyone prime yourself, and keep your eyes open." I said, and puleld a small, rectangular item from my back and hit a button on it. The item unfolded, become a stock, grip, trigger, scope and open-barrel. I slapped a clip home, and watched as the Prime Minster and the SG took the stage

Thirty minutes later, the world changed.

"Man, the bloke can talk can't he? He's a lot like you, Jake."  Gex crowed over the line.

"Bastard." I said, and he laughed again.  "Shhh, he's wrapping up. We're almost through this."

Gex was right though, Prime Minister Coxley could speak; "And let us not live in fear of the USSRE. With this new system we will be able to moniter any military build up and respond to it accordingly. No more will our citizens huddle in fear, wondering if they next will be killed. We will, one day, reach a lating peace. But until that day let us never forget what we are and how far we have come. Let us never forget that every time we are face with an insurmountable obstacle, humanity has never failed to climb and and continue to reach for the stars. No matter the race, language, nationality or creed we must never give in to Tyranny, we must never ----"

There was a loud crack, and the Prime Minister's forehead exploded.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Gex yelled. "No contact, no contact. I've got nothing on my HUD."

I scanned the crowed, and the area around the podium. "I've got nothing. Awwwe, SHIT. Jason?"

I saw him charge up onto the stage, and roll the Prime Minster's body over, he gulped in the comm. "Sniper. Here...." I saw him walk over to the podium, and dig a small object out. "He's using really old ordenance. He can't be that far away."

"Jason hit the dirt!" Gary shouted. Jason, through years of training, threw himself flat as another bullet flew past his head and took a civilian in the shoulder.

"I got him," Gex said. There was a soft thrum in the backround, and I watched as he put one round threw the shooter's head, and another in his neck. "Target down."

"I got a spotter!" I said, and tracked the man running. Poor bastard was running towards me. Two soft thrums as I doubled tapped the trigger. The magnetic accelerators through the projectiles. One caught the man in the shoulder and spun him around, the other in the ankle, shattering the bone. He went down and I switched frequencies.

"HQ, this is Jacob. Get a goddamn abulance over there now. That son of a bitch is still alive. I want him picked up and treated, then in an interrogation room. Make sure he's alive till I get a chance to ask him a few questions."

A faceless voice came across. "Understood ambulence on route."

Gex sighed. "Dammit to hell. How did this.....?"

I shook my head. "Don't dwell. Let's just move people. Clear out, and regroup at HQ. Move move move."