Nathan hit the ground hard, sprawling over on his back as his rifle flew out of his hand and his helmet slipped down over his face and smacked against the bridge of his nose. In an instant Nathan snapped back to the reality that surrounded him. The sound of the .50 caliber machine gun off to the right and small arms fire cracking and popping all around cut through the mental fog that had engulfing him. At first he thought that he had been shot in the face. Almost hesitantly he pulled his helmet back on his head, placed his hand up to his face to feel for the wound, and pulled it away.

When Nathan saw no blood he was overjoyed. That elation lasted only a second. The ping of a near miss and a moan from his RTO told him that not everything was in order. Lifting his head, he saw his RTO, still clutching the hand mike, lying across his legs. The man had been shot. One look at the stream of blood flowing from the RTO’s wound was enough to galvanize the young officer into action. Though he had no idea where the shot that had stricken his RTO had come from, Nathan instinctively knew that he was in trouble.

Taking care not to cause any additional pain to his loyal RTO or expose himself to enemy fire, Nathan worked his legs out from under the wounded man, grabbed him by the straps of his web gear, and pulled the RTO back behind the sandbags.

Hitting a second paratrooper who had come out of nowhere was of no comfort to Nancy Kozak. She had missed her mark. And not only had she not killed the bastard who had fired upon her Guardsmen, both had gone to ground. Looking about, Nancy quickly took stock of the situation within the ammo site as she tried to figure out how many of her own Guardsmen she could muster for a counterattack. The hesitation and confusion that had kept her from being effective were forgotten. While she still had no idea at all what was happening outside her little perimeter, she appreciated the fact that she was the senior officer on the spot, and as such it was up to her to do something before more of her Guardsmen died.

For most of the year Nelson Reeves was a corporate executive. Whenever he was handed a problem, he threw his all into it. His employer expected it of him and his own ethics demanded nothing less. This total dedication to succeed could not be turned off when Reeves donned the uniform of the National Guard and took up his duties as the commander of an armored cavalry squadron. He put out one hundred percent, one hundred percent of the time and demanded the same from everyone in his command. Through a deft understanding of his people and the particular nature of the Guard system, Nelson Reeves got what he wanted.