"Lieutenant McCoy! Lieutenant McCoy, we're being overrun!" the young marine shouted over the loud sound of bullets being shot at them.

Danny turned to find himself looking into the faces of four young men all looking to him for guidance and leadership. Lieutenant McCoy grabbed the youngest marine by his shoulders and turned him around abruptly to get a hold of the satellite phone in his pack. He dialed into the base.

"Alpha one, Alpha one, this is the pretender. Do you come in, over? I repeat this is the pretender, do you come in alpha one, over?" the other men sat and looked at Danny curiously.

"Pretender, this is alpha one. How do you read, over?" the burly voice questioned coming through a static filled line.

"Alpha one, we are being overrun; I am requesting an air strike on the coordinates of…" Danny paused as he again reached into his fellow marines pack to pull out a very warn map. "…33°20′00″N, 44°26′00″E, over." The men standing around him looked at him in bewilderment; they couldn't believe what they were hearing. "I repeat the coordinates are 33°20′00″N, 44°26′00″E. Do you read alpha one, over?"

"Yes, we read you Pretender, are you sure this is the only option, over?" The man again questioned with a hoarse voice.

"Alpha one, I am positive. Is that a confirmation, over?" Danny listened intently.

"That's a go pretender. May God be with you. This is alpha one out."

Bill, the youngest of the five men, snatched the map from his lieutenant's hands and examined it thoroughly.

"Wait a minute, those are our coordinates!" He shouted sounding panicked. Danny looked down at his feet and said nothing.

Suddenly all went quiet and the only thing Danny could hear was Mary's voice pleading him to come back to her. He remembered what she looked like in the Vegas sunlight, with the wind blowing in her hair, smiling like she used to when they were kids. He remembered when they were young and everything was so innocent, he remembered how happy the two of them used to be, and then he remembered the passionate night they had spent together before he had left. Then the thought came to him, that would be the last time he would ever see Mary Connell if he didn't do something.

He then snapped out of it and signaled for his troops to follow. The highly trained marines ran and hugged the outside wall of an old abandoned building. Suddenly shots were fired and it wasn't coming from Lieutenant McCoy's squad. Danny turned around quickly to see that the youngest member of his squad had violently been thrust back against the wall and slid down. Danny quickly looked from his friend to the Iraqi soldier that had just killed his fellow marine and put four bullets into his skull. He then rushed over to Bill who was now sitting on the ground propped up against the building with blood escaping his body from his many wounds. Danny squatted down and put two of his fingers to the man's neck and didn't feel a pulse. The tall marine looked down and then again raised his head and lifted his hand to shut the eyes of the young marine.

Danny realized that if he didn't do something soon then his entire squad and himself were going to end up like Bill, dead. Not leaving Bill behind, Danny picked him up, threw him over his shoulder, and ran for cover with his troops close behind. They had reached an old abandoned building, there seemed to be a lot of those in this particular area. Danny laid Bill down on a table in the corner of the room. The constant sound of gunfire never seemed to let up, but it didn't seem to bother any of them.

The men went up the rickety stairs to find two bedrooms that both used to have windows overlooking the desert, but were now just holes in the wall staring at the demolished cars and pieces of what used to be buildings that lay in the streets below. There were Iraqi soldiers everywhere and they had now spotted the American troops spying on them through the, what were at one time, windows and opened fire. The marines fell to the floor quickly drawing their weapons into the correct position and opened fire on the enemy. There were two marines on Danny's right and another on his left. For the first few minutes they were doing pretty well and then out of the corner of his right eye Danny saw Kent fall and he wasn't getting back up. The men kept firing their weapons out of the destroyed windows until there was no one left to shoot at. Danny rushed over to Kent and took his pulse only to discover that he didn't have one. Clark walked up behind Danny and clapped him on the back indicating for him to move aside.

At that moment as Danny watched the remaining two marines lift Kent up and take him downstairs and lay him next to Bill he knew that if somehow he got out of this alive he was going to ask Mary Connell to become Mrs. Daniel McCoy.

Danny sat and stared at the lifeless bodies of Bill and Kent. Suddenly Danny snapped out of it and cautiously looked outside. It was then when he spotted it. Their escape vehicle or what would soon become their escape vehicle. The tall marine ran back inside and grabbed the remaining two marines, Jack and Brian.

"There is a truck outside that I believe still has the keys in it. Jack I need you to go out there, get the truck, and bring it around front. Brian I need you to help me get Bill and Kent and load them up in the truck." Danny instructed.

"But Lieutenant, Bill and Kent are…." Brian started when Danny cut him off.

"Bill and Kent are marines! And they will not be left behind! Do you got that?!" Danny shouted looking at Brian with a looked that dared him to question him further.

Jack left to go get the truck and Brian helped with Bill and Kent. Once Danny and Brian were done Danny got in the drivers seat, Brian manned the automatic gun that was on the back of the truck, and Jack sat in the Passenger seat with his gun ready for action. Danny knew that if they didn't get going they were going to get caught in the massive explosion that he had called in for. He started up the truck and put it into gear and got going. As he turned the corner there were hundreds of Iraqi men all around them with guns, mostly AK47's, and began firing at them. Danny was swerving all over the road trying to dodge bullets, people, cars that no longer worked, fire pits, anything and everything that was in his way. There were tons of people that were just dropping to the ground and then Danny realized that it was because of his troops, his friends, his family.

They kept going when Jack suddenly fell forward hitting his head hard on the dash board. Danny turned his head and noticed the gaping whole in his friends back. He had no choice but to keep driving. Brian was still on the automatic when both he and Danny noticed that the enemy that they were fighting stopped shooting and started to run in the same direction that they were driving. Danny glanced in his rear view mirrors and could see the explosions that were occurring behind him that seemed to get nearer and nearer. And then it happened, those explosions that were occurring behind their truck, the bombs that Danny had ordered to be dropped caught up with them. He could feel the car rise into the air and he had no control over it. Suddenly the truck came back down landing on its roof with all of the marines still inside.

It was the loudest noise that Danny had ever heard. It wasn't the sound of the explosion, or the sound of the car crashing, it was the sound of his friend Brian screaming out of agony. Danny struggled to get out of the car, but he couldn't. The steering wheel of the car was pinning him to his seat crushing his legs. He fought profusely, but did not succeed. He could not see Brian, he could only hear his blood curdling screams.

Suddenly something caught his eye. The small piece of glass that once belonged to the rear view mirror lied next to his face. He reached over and grabbed it, he looked into the mirror and could see Brian rolling around on the floor behind him trying to put the fire out that was burning all over his body. Tears started streaming down the lieutenant's face as he took the slice of glass and through it out in front of him to watch it shatter. With one last intense pull up on the steering wheel it came loose and Danny stammered out of the car. As a staggering Danny approached Brian he stared at him lying on the floor motionless with burns all over his body. He suddenly collapsed to his knees next to Brian's lifeless body.

The explosions had stopped some time ago, but Danny couldn't move. He slowly got up from his knees and looked around. The pack that his fellow marine was wearing had been thrown from the car while it was airborne. He slowly walked over to the pack and pulled out the map that he had used just hours before. Looking at that map he found the coordinates that he was looking for. The emergency drop was only a half a mile away. A dune buggy and some weapons would be waiting. Danny picked up the pack and started to run. He never stopped running until he reached the dune buggy. Danny threw the pack onto the passenger seat and drove back to his previous location.