Cool series so far, I look forward to reading the next story!

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it and hope you enjoy the next story (it's much longer than this one).

If you still need help on Inter-Armed Forces medals and awards, please let me know. / Sorry, I forgot I had already given you the info long ago.

Many thanks for the offer, but I ultimately decided on the Silver Star in the sequel. It appeared to be the most appropriate level, given Cordelia's actions (I read a a few real-life citations).

Hope you enjoyed the story.

Couldn't think of a better way for Kinsey to get his, unless he had been publicly humiliated first then sucked dry.

James

Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow...

Thanks for the review.

"Glad you enjoyed it. Hope you like the rest of the series (the sequel is much longer, I'm afraid)."

Never ever appologise for writing long fics! I love epic length stories. 100,000+ word stories are my preference. That being said, I look forward to inhaling your series.

James

this story was fantastic!
i can't wait to read your next cordy story

Glad you enjoyed it. Hope you like the rest of the series (the sequel is much longer, I'm afraid).

I always liked the Buffy version of Cordelia.
Never really warmed to her on Angel the same way.
I love her in this story so far.
I'm nervous for the Scoobies reaction to her, but I'm sure she'll hold her own.
It's still weird to read the Scoobies swearing since they never did on the show, but it feels more realistic I love it.

The Scoobies and Cordelia will, in general, get along reasonably well. They've all had a chance to grow up and mature. As for Cordelia swearing, her time in the Army may have contributed to that...

Thankis for the review - glad you're enjoying it.

Very good start for this series, so far as I've read it. Brave Airborne Sergeant Cordy, now that's something to think about, but I'd say it suits her, I saw her growing into it as soon as I read the story, and I'm not talking about the Vengeance Demon's spell backfiring on her.

As to your question at the end of this fic, I was a member of the 82nd myself, A co, 3/504 PIR (Blue Devils), and I can tell you that an Army soldier serving with the USAF on a USAF led mission would most likely get an Air Force medal, but it's hard to tell sometimes one branch's variant of the same medal from another just looking at the ribbons on the chest, the differences are very subtle.

Nicely done!

Thanks for the review - glad you're enjoying it so far. Cordy is a very much underused character in fanfic and we don;t see enough of the personal courage and ability for self-sacrifice we saw in Angel.

As for the medal, I eventually went with the Silver Star, which as you say is the same across branches.

Great! This is the true start to the story. And its a grand epic you're telling. A full Ten here because at the end of it you could have stopped there. Stopping points are really more of big pauses, I know a professional writer who told the story of a hero, the heros children, then grandchildren and so on. He stretched it out past 12 books! But the end of this marked the end of the "first book in the series". Well done and thanks.

I had initially intended to stop here, but the muse had more to say.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it.

Ok, gonna leave it there for tonight.

Couple of observations; I'm not keen on your 'Joyce' just didn't do it for me and I get the distinct feeling you don't like Anya.

Now I can live with Joyce because this is a great story and I can over look the way you've portrayed her and Anya, well I don't really care. I was never that impressed with her.

Other than that I'm enjoying this and hopefully I'll get it finished tomorrow.

Great stuff,
DaveT.

Actually, I don't have too many problems with Anya. This is just Cordy's take on her, as you'll see further on. My Joyce is maybe a little OOC for some tastes, however.

Glad you're enjoying it so far - thanks for the review.

To be quite honest, this fic is one of the reasons for signing up at TtH.
To find a fic with this quality finished (in a way) is quite rare; to find sequels that are in the making is rarer still. Sadly too many beautiful fics remain unfinished (and abandoned).
So I happily give this peace of writing a 9 (because nothing is ever perfect).

(Oh, in chapter 9, when you say: "The supply teacher who was actually a giant praying mantis and tried to mate with him", you probably mean "The SUBSTITUTE teacher...". Don't feel bad; I knew something was wrong, it still took me over half an hour to find the correct word.)

Thanks for the compliments - I feel my head growing! Hope you enjoy the sequel (though fair warning, it's much bigger than this one...)

I probably should have used "substitute" - "supply" is the term used on this side of the pond.

Thanks for the review.

good chapter, but Harmoney should of 'played' with Kingsly just a bit ! :D

Harmony wasn't really that sort of vampire, not with a simple victim of opportunity. Perhaps she might drain Kinsley, even have sex with him if he'd been vaguely attractive, but otherwise just a quick kill and move on.

Thanks for the review.

Out of curiosity, why is it you chose to do this with Wesley - having him rejoin the council and be appointed envoy - rather than have him join up with Angel mid-season 1? In fact...well, Angel season 1 is over...was Wesley with them at any point?

I don't mind what you did here (well, I find it a little annoying because I'm a huge Wesley fan - he's my Favorite Buffyverse character, but then I don't expect to like everything done in a given fic), I'm just curious as to your thought process.

There was no automatic reason why he should join Angel's group. They were somewhat different for one thing - Doyle still alive and Kate Lockley, with no Cordy (who'd at least had some liking for him). Angel had no reason to trust him. In any case, I need him for my sequel Fate's Little Plaything, where he'll eventually gravitate back to the Sunnydale team. Personally, I never really liked him, but I'll be using his character later. At the end of season 3, though, he was still a snivelling little weasel - the sort who was more likely to ingratiate himself back into the Council's good graces, than set off alone as a rogue demon hunter.

In the Initiative's defense, I don't think they knew what the Mayor was up to until he actually went all snake-y, and by the time that happened, there was no way for them to get people into position.

That's perhaps the case, but in my story they had all of Sunnydale under close and constant surveillance for a long time before the season 4 period. They definitely should have noticed that something was wrong with the Mayor - his contacts for example, like Trick, a dark Faith, etc. They also knew more about the Slayer and so forth than in canon, but were too busy collecting information for their own purposes to make contact with the people who were actually protecting the town. Their inaction is, therefore, indefensible.

Thanks for the review.

This was fantastic. took me a little longer on this one them prior nut i loved it. on to the next

Glad you enjoyed it - thanks for the review. I'm afraid "Fate's Little Plaything" will take you even longer than this one - it's about seven times the length, so I hope you don't get bored!

This is only the fourth story I have ever recommended. I've read nearly every Buffy story on the net. I passed up this one because it was about Cordelia, my mistake. This is so well written and gives Cordy a much better image than on BtVS. Hard to believe you're not in or retired from the US military, your accuracy is damn near perfect, no flaws I could find. The action in this story is very believable and entertaining, even the lead up to the attack on the Initiative caves is good reading. And it wasn't all stiff and fact based reading ... a lot of humor laced in the story as well. All in all one of the best reads I've found in the last two years and I know I'll read it again in a couple of years. Good literature is even better when read a second time. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this series which is much longer than this story and I know it's going to be a great read.
Thanks for writing and posting this to share your exceptional writing ability.

Thanks for the review - glad you enjoyed it. I tried to make my Cordelia closer to the mid-season 3 Angel version (before the writers did horrible things with her character). In Angel she was beginning to evolve into a much better human being, albiet still with her snarky. I decided that real adversity and new challenges - unemployed and on the brink of homelessness and going hungry, followed by being forced into the Army by a vengeance demon - might have some major changes on her character, especially if her home environment was less than kind to her previously. I'm not ex-military (not even from the US) but I teach military science and military history and I've worked closely with the Royal Navy in the past.

Hope you enjoy the next part.