Michael Nantz

Michael Nantz was a United States Marine Staff Sergeant for 20 years. He lost many men under his last deployment and planned on retiring until he was called into battle against a deadly alien attack on Los Angeles.

History
Not much is known about Nantz's early life or the beginning of his career, but he was a very skilled US Marine. In his last deployment before the unexpected Battle of Los Angeles, he lost many men. He planned on retiring, but soon found himself being called back to the war to fight against an invasion of Los Angeles led by extraterrestrials who were trying to take Earth's resources.

Nantz went into the battle leading a platoon of men from "E" Company, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines alongside the Platoon Commander, 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez. Their mission was to rescue innocent civilians from a LAPD police station within three hours. If they did not complete the mission within the time-limit, they would all be killed when the U.S. Air Force would arrive to bomb the city in an effort to kill the extraterrestrials. They were ambushed many times by the aliens and lost many men. While in the midst of the fighting, the platoon encountered a group of U.S. Army Soldiers from the 40th Infantry Division. One of the many was a Air Force Intelligence Technical Sergeant known as Elena Santos. When her division was attacked, she was the only one able to escape.

The platoon joined forces with Santos and the others and reached the police station in time. They found five civilians hiding inside the building, terrified. A helicopter then arrived to take the injured Marines. As it was taking off, an alien air unit attacked it and destroyed it. The Marines then found one of the city's invaders, wounded, and attempted to find it's weaknesses. One of the civilians, Michele, who was a veterinarian, helped them out, and Nantz and the others discovered that the creature had a weak spot in the torso. They also discovered some of the aliens' military tactics. They learned that the alien attack aircraft were remote-controlled drones and that the aliens were tracking them through their radio communications.

The Marines believed that there was a control center that, if destroyed, would eliminate all control of the drones, which would open enemy forces to air attack. When the Marines began an evacuation and took control of a bus, they were attacked while driving on a freeway. The Marines began to help the civilians get off of the freeway. One of the civilians (whose name was Joe Rincon) was severely injured by one of he aliens when he fired on them, and the Marines had to get him to safety. Martinez, meanwhile, put Nantz in charge of his platoon. Martinez was also wounded and sacrificed himself, despite his longing to return home to his pregnant wife, by detonating C-4 explosives inside the bus to destroy an enemy unit.

Nantz led the remaining members of the platoon and the civilians to safety in a convenience store to rest. The team began to wait for the bombing to begin after learning that the aliens' purpose on Earth was to take the water supply, which they used as fuel. Nantz and the others escaped to the FOB after the bombing did no begin. They discovered that the aliens had already destroyed the FOB. They decided to get to another excavation point so they could esape in a helicopter. Before they left, Joe Rincon died, despite great care given to him. His son, Hector, was saddened by this. Nantz told him that it was alright, but he had to be strong. This caused one of the members of the platoon, Corporal Jason Lockett, to lack faith in Nantz's ability to lead. He reassured him, however, and took the platoon and civilians to the extraction point.

As they were evacuating, Nantz spotted a large, black spot on the ground that he believed to be the command center, hidden underground. He left the helicopter in an effort to go in and destroy it. The platoon followed him, leaving the civilians up in the helicopter.

Going underground, the Marines confirmed the presence of a large alien vessel. They returned to the surface and succeeded in calling in a missile strike using laser designators. However, the command center remained intact and rose from the ground. The Marines fought the alien forces as more missiles were launched at the hovering command center, and eventually they destroyed it. This disabled the alien aircraft in the area, forcing the alien ground forces to retreat.

Soon after, the team was extracted to a temporary base in the Mojave Desert, where they were greeted as heroes for their outstanding bravery. All other cities under attack now planned to emulate their strategy, destroying the alien command center in each city. More forces were being sent to Los Angeles to finish off the aliens there. Despite orders to rest, Nantz and the platoon instead rejoined the fight.

(From the Battle Los Angeles Wikia)

Weapons
Nantz is leading 4 marines through the streets of LA looking for anymore of the aliens. Meanwhile Lennox is leading 4 NEST troops through LA as well with orders to see if these aliens could somhow bee allies with the Decepticons. Nantz turns to the right looking down a street and sees Lennox and the NEST soldiers. He does know that they could not be allies as his squad should be the only team in the area and so thinks they could be hostiles from some other country and has orders to shoot anything not friendly and so he follows orders. He opens up with his M203 killing the 2 NEST troops in the back. Lennox and his 2 men immediately head to cover and a NEST soldier armed with a M32 opens up firing 3 shots succesfully killing 2 of Nantz's men as they are heading for cover. Nantz returns fire with M16A4 while his other 2 marines are returning fire with a Beretta 92FS, and a SAW. The Marine with the SAW scores a hit on another NEST member riddling him with bullets. Lennox reacts by hitting the Beretta wielding Marine with his M4A1and orders the last NEST soldier armed with a Mk 46 to retreat, with Nantz and his SAW carrying marine following. The NEST soldier decides to give Lennox time and waits for the Marines to turn the corner. The SAW marine turns the corner and sees the NEST soldier and tries to raise his SAW but the NEST soldier is able to bring his up faster because of its lighter weight and fills him with bullets but Nantz pops out and hits the NEST soldier with his M16A4 in the head. Nantz pulls out his Beretta and starts looking for Lennox, Lennox then pops out from an alleyway and tries to hit Nantz but he immediately takes cover behind some rubble and then Lennox runs out of ammo for his M4A1 and so he takes out his SIG Sauer P226. Both begin shooting at each other with their pistols with both scoring hits on their left arms. Lennox begins running and gunning with Nantz doing the same thing. Soon Lennox decides to take cover inside a building and runs inside what looks like a diner and starts returning fire at Nantz. Nantz takes cover and tries to return fire but finds his Beretta out of ammo, and so as a last resort he takes an AT4 rocket launcher off his back and aims it at Lennox and once he gets him in his sights fires the rocket. Lennox sees this and tries to run but its too late and the rocket hits close enough for the main explosian to kill him and blow him all the way to the back of the room, Nantz moves in to see if his enemy is dead and sees Lennox's liffeless body agaisnt the back wall. Nantz yells in victory "US MARINES!!!!!"

Winner: SSgt.Nantz

Expert's Opinion:
This was a really, really close battle with just a difference of 2 kills but in the end while Lennox had the better weaponary and had the advantage in both Training, and Combat Experience. BUT while Nantz had the disadvantages he just had the more better leadership when it came to small team battles. Not to mention the disadvantage in training and weapons are the disadvantages he had when fighting the aliens that invaded LA and he still defeated them. Lennox was just like the aliens, he had better training, and better weapons so is a way Nantz had the leadership to lead his troops through a huge technological disadvantage battle and still win the day.