🚨 ALERT ALERT 🚨 I FINALLY UPDATED
Sorry my awesome badasses, college is hard yo

Song: Without Me by Halsey

13 June 2024
1800
Classified, North Korea

Percy POV
"Piper, Frank! Great to see you losers after so long!"

Sarina and I are both Infantry, since we wanted to lay low. We've already discovered eight spies within the ranks of the Marine Corps since boot camp.

Neither of us were quite the same people after experiencing boot camp, but we had been through similar experiences in war beforehand.

Sarina is currently stationed somewhere else in North Korea with a different squadron of Infantry Special Operations units. I haven't heard from her in two weeks, but hope to see her again when I transfer to another base next week.

At the moment, two squadrons of Marines are meeting up in [REDACTED], North Korea in an attempt to destroy their supply of nuclear weapons. Jason is one of our pilots stationed here with us.

"Yeah, it has been forever man. Glad our squads were the ones picked for the front lines." Frank responds, giving me a bro hug.

"I would ask how in the Nico's dad you picked up Lance Corporal in the span of like three months, but you're Percy." Piper remarks, gesturing to the rank on my collar.

"Yeah, I got meritorious for something stupid."

Jason smacks the back of my head as we all walk back to meet up with some of our other brothers and sisters to be briefed for the meeting. "Stupid reason? You jumped on a damn live grenade that one of the spies tossed at us, then threw it back at him and saved the whole platoon. You also took down his ring of four other spies in the span of five minutes after that."

"Yeah, I was just doing my job. Stupid reason."

I hear all of my friends groan in response.

We get back to the command tent and meet up with Hazel and Corporal Lewis, a random demigod who also joined up.

Jason flies our bird, the mighty Blackhawk helicopter- victor model. He used so much mist and Piper's charmspeak to get through over a years worth of schooling in two months. To be fair, all of us did.

Hazel is a K9 Unit, complete with a badass bomb sniffing dog that I don't ever want to piss off. Meanwhile, Nico is a Communications Specialist but went off to another base three days ago. Piper is also Communications, and Frank is Hazel's partner K9 Unit for this deployment, since the other squad with Reyna went back home. We have yet to meet up with our Army pals, but in letters Nico says they're doing great.

In the command tent, they tell us that we're going out on an op with both K9 Units this time. There's an excessive amount of land mines out there now, which Corporals Lewis and Murphy found out the hard way on guard duty, unfortunately. They're alive, just injured.

"There's a squad of Army and Marine Special Ops peeps who are in a bad spot. They went in to dismantle some nuclear war heads, and got caught up in a firefight with the North Korean guards. We need to break them out of the prison camp they're in now, along with a a team of British Spec Ops dudes." Captain King explains, ensuring we all understand the importance of this mission.

"We leave in five minutes, grab your shit and let's go." Sergeant Phillips shouts at us, as Captain King rolls his eyes at his brevity.

We all grab our bags, around 90 pounds each, and get in the Humvee. Jason will be standing by as air support with his flight crew and crew chiefs.

The crew for this operation includes Captain King, a patched up Corporal Murphy, Sergeant Phillips, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and I.

As we roll out, I see Jason and his crew loading into the helicopter for air support. He looks back and gives me a nod. I nod back in response.

It takes us three hours to get there, through the forest and around the cities, Hazel and Frank and their dogs saving our asses from a total of 37 land mines. Also, the Humvee can really only go like 40 mph.

Once we arrive, on the outskirts of a razor wire fence, I know all hell is about to break loose.

Through the radios, Jason states that the person seemingly walking around in charge is mythological, using the code we've developed to keep the mortals out of the loop.

"Captain King, watch for the commander in the East portion of the camp. He looks like he's strong enough to control the sky."

Ouranos. That is not good at all.

"Roger Grace, do you have eyes on our troops?"

"Negative sir, they must be underground or inside."

"Copy."

Now is the time for stealth, we don't know where our spec ops guys are. We also can't drop bombs, because this place is also full of innocent civilians who opposed and other opposition to the North Korean/Russian/Chinese war effort.

It is now 2300, and well after dark. We stick to the places between lights and the single guard tower. We aren't supposed to know about this camp, after what happened back in World War II.

What we find reminds me of history class, watching videos on German concentration camps and work camps. Disgusting.

We use wire cutters and snip a person sized hole in the electrified fence, using rubber gloves, shoes, and handles.

The six of us slip through the self made entrance, and head to where intel told us the prisoners may be held based on drone images. We all have on night vision gear.

We sneak past three guards, and a disgusting amount of twiglike humans, pushing a wheel that appears to be providing sustainable energy to the compound and the nearby cities. I appreciate the idea, but the execution makes me want to simultaneously vomit and punch a Korean Nazi, or whatever they call themselves.

We break into a building that is approximately the size of an average one story house. Inside, are at least three hundred starving people.

They are all asleep, moaning from pain, or already dead. There is no telling how long they have been here for. Months, at least.

How did we as a world miss this atrocity?

"Jackson! Snap out of it!" King whisper yells to me.

"Sorry sir, what's the new plan?"

"We don't have the men to rescue them all. The mission is to rescue our missing troops. We need to get our guys then go back to base and regroup with a bigger force. Hopefully chain of command will let us rain hell on these douchebags for this."

Something tells me that won't work out as well as he assumes. Piper, Frank, and Hazel all look me in the eyes, as near as we can in our goggles and helmets, but I can tell they feel the same. Something is terribly off.

We begin walking around, looking for American and British faces and uniforms.  We find three of the four Brits in this room, as well as one of the Americans. We are still missing five Americans and one Brit.

"Corporal Murphy, Private Levesque, and Private Zhang, take these back to the Humvee and hide them with Phillips guarding it.  We'll radio if we need further assistance. Jackson, McLean, and I are heading out to find the others."

"Do any of you know where the others could be?"

An American steps forward. "I do, they were holding our linguists and technical specialists in the command center. That's where the leader of this camp hides out generally, its on the East end of the compound. It's surrounded by armed guards, ya can't miss it." He is thin, but not as much as the Koreans and other "war criminals" being held here.  He's wearing only the pants of his uniform, like the others. Stripped of weapons and most dignity.

"Thank you..."

"Lance Corporal Evans."

He gives a nod of respect, they all appear to have been tortured to varying degrees. I commend them all for staying strong and pleading the fifth to the enemy as instructed.

King, Piper, and I part ways from the others; Hazel and Frank taking the dogs back to the Humvees. If they get called for backup they will leave the dogs with the others for their safety. We let Jason and his crew know to stand by. I have a feeling that shit is about to get real.

We make it to the described building, and make quick work of three guards with our silenced pistols. It's only a matter of time before the next patrol gets alerted of our presence now. We rush in, and are immediately made.

A guard shouts in Korean, what I can only assume meant "OH SHIT RAISE THE ALARM," but I don't speak Korean.

Immediately seven troops come running and begin firing at us. We have no cover, despite entering in approved formation. King took point, I took rear.

King gets shot in the chest, in the body armor as eleven more troops enter the hallway, in disarray. They appear to have not been expecting us, for some reason.

That makes him angry, and he runs out of ammo in his pistol, making sure to pistol whip an enemy as he trades to his AK-47.

We break formation, and start taking on enemies one on one. Piper and I fight back to back, reminiscing on old times. Some enemies without guns have attempted to surround us all, so Piper kicks one in the chest. We have eight of the eighteen left, no reinforcements have showed up for them yet.

At this time, I see King get his helmet knocked off by a Korean soldier, and then get solidly hit by the butt of his weapon in the back of the head, he was surrounded by five of them.

"Backup requested, man down." I shout into our radios.

"Roger. Five minutes out." Hazel responds.

I run over and grab King over my shoulder, and use my machine gun to take out as many enemies as possible. Now that King is out, I summon the winds and some rain inside to get the upper hand. In a matter of moments all of them are out cold or at least playing dead. Piper confidently says "Anyone alive will raise your hand now." Three people do, and she makes quick work of them.

"We can't stay here. We're sitting ducks, let's go. I'll shove King in this super convenient for the plot janitors closet."

"Isn't he injured?"

"Mildly, he got the wind knocked out of him but he isn't bleeding. Just unconscious." I respond.

We make our way down the hallway, sticking to the walls but quickly.

After making six left turns and a right, passing an empty kitchen and a few now empty quarters, we come to an area that looks important. The door is made of steal, and I can practically feel the aura of a Primordial emanating from it.

We try it, and it's unlocked.

What we find is a goldmine.

Ouranos is inside, sitting at a desk. The soldiers inside this building must have been all upper enlisted and officers, command staff.

This is the command center, complete with radars, a bunch of buttons that look to be able to fire missiles and even nuclear weapons. According to the button labeled in six different languages, DO NOT TOUCH WILL FIRE NUCLEAR!

Ouranos turns around in his chair slowly, and our remaining missing soldiers are all tied to chairs lined up in front of the maps of US military bases.

"Mr. Jackson, I've been wanting to meet you for ages. You killed my wife."

"She wanted to kill and enslave mankind, I'm not that sorry."

"And that is precisely why you will be the one to press the button that destroys your country and watch as I kill your girlfriend."

I am confused, until I scan the faces of the soldiers. Sarina, Nico, two others I don't recognize, and Thalia have all been captured. I realize with a burst of cold fear and fury that they were the joint Marine/Army/British Air Force sent in to dismantle the nuclear war heads that must be nearby somewhere.

"Over my dead body! Who are you aligned with?"

"My wife and Kronos decided to wait and rise together. I joined this time to kill you, but not before I make you experience what I did."

"Your wife literally came back to life already!"

"That is beside the point! I will see to it personally that you and every unsubdued mortal perishes and suffers at my and your hands!"

Ouranos has stood up, and Piper and I train our weapons on him instantly as he pulls out a gun. He points it at Sarina in response, and pulls the trigger.