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Alex Paxton looked around the base that was his command. The long asphault and concrete walls that seemed to be his protection often felt like a prison. Hastily built but built thoroughly. Numerous helicopter landing pads were spread around the base as well as the numerous equipment and personnel elevators. The smell of decay was heavy in the air. A drawback of living close to the city of Los Angeles. With the 4^th of the 8^th assembled Captain Alex Paxton stood on top of a large cargo crate and began telling his troops what he expects. "If we do this by the numbers hopefully no one will die but we all know that's bullshit. We are soldiers and a soldier knows his time will come in any given battle. Our last recon flight showed the dead to number from four to five thousand. You know once we get there they will start pouring out of the buildings and the numbers should jump to at least eight to ten thousand. Now they have already overran the National Guard but those guys were a bunch of pussies, the dead may be numerous but history shows that no one fucks with the Air Cav!" His comments were met with huge cheers as the soldiers began hardening their hearts for what would prove to be a violent and bloody mission. Paxton looked on approvingly. "Now its time to get to business. All equipment checks will be done in 6 hours or less. We haven't got much time, the operation will commence in seven hours lets get it done. Air Cav!" Once again his comments rallied the troops as they ran to begin operation Lone Hero. The troops finished the weapons and equipment checks in record time. The concentration that a life or death mission brings usually centers a soldier allowing him to perform like a machine. A total of twenty seven aircraft were ready for battle in under three hours their quick work allowed them time to dwell on their upcoming events which sometimes does more harm than good.

Zero hour. The aircraft began to crank up their engines and the troops of the diversionary mission began to board their aircraft. LT. Tom Miles watched his troops making sure everything was going by the numbers when he was tapped on the shoulder by Captain Paxton who began to discuss the mission's urgency. ''Good luck Tom." "Thank you sir." Replied the Lieutenant. Paxton looked at his own awaiting aircraft, "Tom, we lost contact with the station Twenty minutes ago. I fear the worst but just in case you need to give us as much time as you can. Don't turn it into a last stand and stay in contact. I don't need any more surprises today." "Roger that!" Miles said as he was half laughing while boarding his aircraft. The three Blackhawks lifted off carrying the diversionary mission with its 30 soldiers aboard.

Onboard the aircraft Tom Miles addressed his soldiers. "Alright boys gear up we are ten minutes from point X-ray lets get mean!" Each soldier had on urban camouflage a mix of grays, black and white colors mixed into a pattern similar to the one traditionally worn by soldiers in the field. Each soldier wore the new BA-21 body armor. They didn't expect the zombies to start shooting but every little bit helped especially against the deadly bite wounds that the dead could inflict. To date no one survived a bite from the living dead. Most were carrying the new M-18 assault rifle that fired a 7.62 mm bullet and had a 20 mm grenade launcher under the rifle barrel. The four machine gunners had the M249 5.56 mm light machine gun and all had the .44 cal. Desert Eagle semi automatic pistol as backup. The weapons were the only thing keeping them from the living dead.

All twenty five aircraft of the air rescue mission lifted off and headed toward LZ Hope. In the lead Blackhawk Captain Paxton hoped Tom Miles would be able to give him enough time to pull off the mission.

Inside the lead Blackhawk the approach to landing zone light comes on and the crew chief begins yelling over the noise of the engine. "One minute from LZ X-ray when we land we will be waiting for your signal to extract if your radio is out pop as much smoke as you can. The middle building in that alley looks like our best bet. Good luck!" Miles just nodded as he was still concentrating on the coming mission.

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