Xander sat on a hill and watched Sunydale burn. Off to the left a M1A2 tank fired at a large demon on the beach, which was bellowing defiance. It splashed like a frog hit with a 15lb hammer.
"Big, tough, aggressive, and fortunately dim as arms length up a hogs arse." the scooby mused. Hadn't they realized yet that anti-armour weapons were effective against them? You would think that after five demons the size of the Mayor were killed in the first hour after the Marines arrived they would get the hint. "Just keep being stupid guys, just keep being stupid."
The dark haired man was wearing the uniform of a captain, which was the rank issued to him when he was pressganged 'for the duration of the emergency.' That the emergency was official policy said a lot about how things had changed.
That Xander Harris, unemployed construction worker, was sitting here, as an 'advisor' to the government said a lot about how seriously the situation was taken. He was not allowed out of sight of the Headquarters area, and had to stay within the defence perimeter. A formal position with the defence department was being offered, apparently Riley had put in a good word for him.
The obstructive nature of the Watchers Council also had something to do with it. They had refused to co-operate when asked politely, saying they should be in charge and the whole thing covered up somehow, it was traditional.
That the politeness had been purely a formality was presumably obvious now, with the council leaders under arrest for high treason in the tower of London. Xander's advice had been crucial, the former Initiative members spoke up for him, and the council had bad mouthed him. So now he had several thousand Marines between himself and harm, and the human fight against the demons was on the news all over the world.
"Hey, Xman, you ok?" It was Faith, pardoned and in uniform too. She was in the frontline of the fighting still though. He appreciated having someone from his past around, after what had happened.
"Reasonably, the arm itches a lot though."
"So where do you want me to scratch it?"
"No, its the other arm."
Faith looked embarrassed, probably would have looked more so if not for the haunted look and lack of sleep. Everyone with demon fighting experience had gone into the front line and stayed there until the heavy armour arrived. He had been fighting with an axe in his good hand when the counter attack started, and only then agreed to medical evacuation. Keeping busy had helped drown out the memories of Willow going into the mouth of a big purple and green thing with too many teeth.
"Good to see you Faith, seen anyone we know?" She shouldn't feel bad about the arm thing, he kept trying to reach for things with it and it had been his arm. And phantom pains were the least of his problems, anyway.
"Not alive." The dark slayer had a look known as 'the thousand yard stare', and he wondered if he had it too. It was hard to know, since everyone around him was fairly out of it through exhaustion, fear and shock. "The last of the old Intitative guys got it yesterday."
"They're already talking about rebuilding and after, you know. And that Lorne guy that Angel knows, knew, he's been on CNN trying to explain not all demons are evil, Tom Hanks is an old friend or something so they didn't just shoot him on sight."
They sat and watched the show, eventually someone brought MRE's over to eat. People always complained about the rations, but they were still better than Xander's mothers attempts at cooking. He watched the Air Cavalry helicopter gunships circle, looking like big, dark metallic wasps. They had depleted uranium ammunition for the 30mm chainguns, and chopped up anything they saw. Eventually someone would worry about the residual radiation problem created. Eventually.
"It was still worth it, you know Xman. If you guys hadn't closed the hellmouth, they would be comming out faster than we could kill them." Faith had known of the counter-attack and hellmouth closing spell plan but not been in time to participate. The whole Scooby gang had been involved, and needed a reinforced battalion counter attack to get to the right place for it. Nearly 800 marines died in those few hours of house to house fighting, and only Xander and Giles had survived of the gang, Xander minus an arm.
The former Zeppo watched the city burn, after the casualties involved driving the demon force out of LA and back to this place no-one was interested in trivia like preserving an open grave like Sunnydale. The First Armoured division was forming up to the north for the final push, with the remnants of some National Guard units and anyone still alive from the 173rd Airborne. The United States military are not organised to fight battles at home, and had thrown in what was available. The Airborne was mobile enough to get there quickly, though short of the crucial heavy armour, so the fighting chewed them up and spat out the remains. Literally.
"What was the landing like, Xan?" It was a question he expected, Marine amphibious assaults have and aura about them,it was central to the Corps image. And the landing had been the only way to get to the hellmouth, with the demons on the way to Los Angeles and more comming out of the hellmouth despite round the clock B52 strikes. "I, how did they, ah..."
"Well most of the wrecks you can see are from the first wave." He said, pointing at the gutted amphibious carriers on the beach. "The really big demons all came out to stop us, ripped open the armour like they were cardboard. Once the tanks were ashore they died, and it was house to house all the way to the high School."
"Buffy died getting to the masters old lair, where we had to do it. Dawn had insisted on going, hell she was the age Buffy had been when she started and pretty good at it." the tears on his face flowed freely, they did not stop him from doing this. They had not stopped him from doing anything he had needed to since that day. "We finished the ceremony fairly quickly, and lost Dawn and Willow before we were out of the tunnels, along with most of delta company."
The one armed demon fighter could hear and hear it all again. The thump of grenage launchers and the bang of the armour piercing rounds on demon flesh. The bodies and bits of bodies. Willow spraying blood when the teeth chomped into her, and Giles going full Ripper with a chainsaw on the the thing trying to swallow her. Anya torn in half, covering him in vengence demon goo. The whump of the cave complex collapsing as the Daisy Cutter they had brought in detonated, 15,000lb of propane bomb spewing flame out the exits.
Below them the characterisic thump of grenade launchers was followed by the bang of armour piercing grenades exploding. Essentially useless against modern armoured vehicle, the grenades tore any roughly man size demons into bite size pieces. Incendiary grenades killed well too. The M16 is a glorified 22 after all, so only rifles with grenade launchers attached were being carried now, with the rifle itself just a convinient holder for the launcher.
Captain Harris looked over to the slayer, and saw her fast asleep against a tree. Her subconcious trusted the grunts on the line to do their job, presumably. His lunch break over, he got up and walked back to the tent where he worked. It was time for him to get back to his part of the battle.