Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Terror Network Episode 6

Episode 6: On Target

July 15th, 2010

The sixth episode began with a recap/reminder from the local FOX NEWS affiliate about the current state of the search for the missing anti-ship missiles and for the 15 American citizens and one Marine who are being held captive in Venezuela. Also mentioned in the update was information about a Colombian national who was arrested in California with over forty-five million dollars in illicit drugs stashed in the back of an eighteen wheeler.

The taskforce, led by Jack Cooper, (a PC) called the deputy director of the F.B.I. and asked if they could have access to the Colombian in custody. The answer was a resounding no but the group was able to “patch-in” and watch the man’s interrogation. It was through the Colombian’s interrogation that the group learned about a possible storage site for the Lopez Cartel that may contain the sought after missiles. The most interesting piece of information that the interrogated Colombian gave up was that the Lopez Cartel has been using FARC mercenaries/bodyguards to protect their “investments”.

While the taskforce was making preparations aboard the carrier group stationed outside of Venezuela, Jack Cooper received a frantic call from Deputy Director Pistole. It was during this conversation that the taskforce was informed about the attack on the U.S.S. Mackenzie.

The U.S.S. Mackenzie was on its way to join the carrier group when it was approached by a fast-moving speedboat. When the Mackenzie’s captain finally gave the order to fire upon the small approaching vessel it was struck by an Exocet anti-ship missile. Nine American naval personal were killed and over a dozen were wounded.

Deputy Director Pistole informed Jack Cooper that the United States had been warned that there would be a second attack the following day around noon. Pistole told Jack and his taskforce to gear up and to find the possible Lopez Cartel storehouse and try to capture the remainder of the anti-ship missiles as the president was unwilling to use any military forces against Venezuela in a good faith gesture as to not appear belligerent.

With the clock now ticking, Jack Cooper phoned a contact of his in the Colombian military and asked if the general could arrange transport for the group to the Colombian/Venezuelan border where they would disembark and continue on foot to the possible site of the anti-ship missiles. After initial reluctance, the general acquiesced after being promised $200,000 in American currency.

Five hours later, the four members of the taskforce disembarked out of American-made Blackhawk helicopters manned by Colombian Special Forces pilots. After waiting for the loud helicopters to leave, the group began to make its way on foot towards the target building using Lucy’s (a PC) and Yasabi’s (a PC) military tracking abilities.



At around 4:00 a.m. the taskforce found itself fifty yards away from a one story structure deep in the triple canopy jungle of southwest Venezuela. Outside of the structure were three armed F.A.R.C. guards who were totally uninterested in their shift of guard duty that night. A quick burst of silenced weapons dropped all three paramilitaries. Jack Cooper motioned for the other three to move inside the building while he checked out the garage.

Seconds later Jack swung his silenced Beretta around the corner of the garage and saw that it was filled with an old Blue Range Rover; and to his surprise he noticed that the vehicle was rocking, slowly. After ensuring that the garage was otherwise vacant Jack approached the moving Range Rover and stuck the long snout of his silencer in the rear window. He saw the face of a young woman in the throes of ecstasy; and then her eyes opened and saw the strange silhouette pointing a silenced gun at her face. As her mouth opened to scream Jack reacted and instantly regretted his decision. The man on top of her was hit with bits of blood and brain matter and thrashed at both himself and at Jack. Dodging a wild punch Jack finished the man with the camouflage pants around his ankles off with a single round to the temple. Breathing heavily, Jack fished around the corpses until he found the keys to the Range Rover. Disgusted, he made his way back into the house.

Meanwhile, inside of the building itself, Lucy and Sarah Walker (a PC) were searching the few small rooms in the house and were coming up empty. Yasabi stood guard on the porch and continually told the women to hurry up. Finally in a fit of anger and desperation Sarah kicked over an old and abused billiards table and discovered a stash of AK-47s.

She quickly updated the group to her find and methodically began stripping the weapons and keeping their firing pins.
It was at about this same time that Lucy noticed an odd line that ran the length of one of the wall closets. Upon further inspection Lucy realized that she had stumbled upon a false wall. Using her ear microphone she informed the group about the false wall and Jack told her to wait for him.

Moments later a hidden door had been opened and Jack was leading the group down a winding-wooden staircase with his retractable baton and silenced Beretta in hand. The stairs lead to a small room that was furnished with a filthy overstuffed chair and housed a teenaged F.A.R.C. member sleeping on a dirty-yellow colored couch. Jack motioned to the group that he would take care of the prostate boy and he began to sneak up on him. While Jack was just feet away from the teenager he crunched on an empty beer can that awoke the boy from his inebriated slumber. Jack brought down his baton to silence the boy; but when the baton connected with the boys’ throat, Jack knew that he had made another terrible mistake. The teen’s eyes rolled back into his skull as he dropped to the floor. The other members of the squad looked in terror at Jack who was trying to understand what he had just done.

Jack Cooper was jolted from his internal scoldings by the sound of women’s voices coming from the next room. Instinctively the group stacked up against the door and Sarah readied a flash bang. After receiving the go-ahead nod from Jack, Sarah fluidly opened the door, tossed the flash bang inside and immediately closed the door again. Seconds later the group heard the reverberation of the loud “bang” from the next room and they were on its heels through the door.

The group had entered a large rectangular room that was lined with long tables that were overflowing with cocaine and other drug paraphernalia.

Female workers were running and screaming everywhere but Sarah noticed that there were three hostile terrorists in the room. Alerting the group to the danger Sarah raised her H&K and dropped a paramilitary by the other door at the end of the room while Yasabi walked up to a disoriented F.A.R.C. member writhing on the floor and ended his life with his MP-5.

After the initial burst of gunfire from the group the third terrorist was periodically popping up from behind a table full of coke and letting bullets fly in all directions from his AK. With frightened workers running in all directions and while bullets thudded into walls and cracked all around her, Lucy Castillo took aim with her sniper rifle, and sent a single 7.62 round into the crazed revolutionary’s eye socket.

Jack Cooper yelled out in Spanish for the scared women to be calm and the group was able to flex-cuff three of them before they all ran out of the room. As Yasabi was securing his drug cutter a bearded Marxist burst into the room firing a rusty old revolver. Yasabi was knocked to the floor as the newly-secured Venezuelan hostages began to scream again. Lucy reacted first and plugged a round into the terrorists’ chest before the rest of the group was able to bring their weapons to bear.

Sarah ran over to Yasabi to give him medical assistance. Yasabi moaned in pain but reassured Sarah that neither of the bullets had penetrated his body armor.


Jack told everyone to calm down and to secure their hostages so that they could retrieve them on their way out. The group attempted to grasp their collective breaths while Jack tried to calm his furiously beating heart that was sending what seemed like gallons of adrenaline cursing through his veins. He walked over to the doorway where the revolver-wielding terrorist lay dead on the floor and Jack stared down the hallway where he came from.


Crack! A bullet snapped past Jack through where he had previously been standing. He rolled next to the wall as the group rushed up to the door where Jack was now laying prone. Sarah cautiously peered down the hallway and another bullet whizzed past – this one only millimeters from her skull. She lay back against the wall and told Lucy that she had some competition down the hallway. As Lucy stepped forward she told Jack that she would need a distraction for a few seconds while she lined up her shot. After his early transgressions Jack almost leapt at the opportunity. On the hand count of three Jack stood up in front of the doorway while Lucy took a knee and swung her rifle barrel around the corner. Jack fired his silenced Beretta down the hallway and after what seemed like an eternity he heard a rifle report. When he opened his eyes he turned and saw Lucy aiming down her scope with a focused look on her face. “All clear,” she said.

Jack Cooper led the group down a decrepit and poorly lit hallway. On the floor was strewn debris from decades of misuse and the walls looked as though they might collapse in at any moment. Jack kept his eyes focused forward and wiped the perspiration from his eyes with his right arm. He kept his Beretta pointed forward but he noticed that it was shaking.

When he reached the end of the hallway Jack noticed that his hand was shaking uncontrollably. He turned his arm to look at his watch. The watch relayed the fact that the group had less than ten minutes before the next attack would take place.

Yasabi, noticing the issue that he was having, placed his hand on Jack’s shoulder and slowly moved him out of the way. The Mossad agent prepped a flash bang, mustered his strength, and kicked in the rickety door.

Before he could hurl the grenade into the room Yasabi was stitched by a burst of AK fire. Another two rounds punched into his body armor and one round penetrated his shoulder.

Through no effort of his own the flash bang was propelled forwards and landed inside of the room. The bang of the explosion drowned out by the firing of high caliber weapons in the confined space. Yasabi emptied his entire magazine into the area where he thought he had been shot from while Jack, Lucy, and Sarah fired into the room.

Seconds later the group’s weapons were all clicking as they held in or pulled back their triggers. There were no sounds and an eerie silence lingered within the room. Sarah Walker inserted a fresh magazine and moved forward. As she entered she noticed that the room was filled with large crates from the floor to the ceiling; splattered against one of the crates was blood and jumbled body parts from the three corpses lying below it.

While Jack attended to Yasabi’s wound, Sarah began to carefully pry open some of the crates. Lucy crouched quietly in the doorway to ensure that there were no more surprises.

As Jack applied a pressure bandage to Yasabi’s shoulder Sarah exclaimed that they had finally found the Exocet anti-ship missiles that they had been searching for. Jack looked at his watch and noticed that there were only six minutes before the second strike was supposed to occur. Something was wrong. If the missiles (or a single missile) were to be launched in just six minutes, what were they doing laying in a damp subterranean basement in the middle of the jungle?

Yasabi slowly stood up and began to unroll his detonation cord and semtex explosives out of his explosives bag that was slung over his back. While Yasabi ran triple the amount of semtex needed to destroy the anti-ship missiles, Sarah Walker heard footsteps above them. She told the group, and Yasabi told them to all go ahead and make sure that they were not going to be trapped in the basement – he would be right behind them.

Jack, Lucy, and Sarah all readied their weapons and took off down the ‘sniper’ hallway they had just previously traveled. When the taskforce members entered into the drug cutting room Yasabi stopped setting up his explosives and removed a laptop computer that was wedged in between two massive crates and slipped it into his explosives bag.


Meanwhile the remainder of the taskforce had arrived back to the ratty couch with the F.A.R.C. terrorist lying dead on it. When Jack Cooper peaked around the corner he saw three well dressed South Americans carrying Uzis walking cautiously down the corridor. Without a second thought, Jack put his silenced Beretta under his left armpit, removed a fragmentation grenade off of his combat vest, pulled the pin, released the spoon, and tossed it around the corner.

Boom! Dust, wooden shards, and pieces of corpses were blown down the hallway. Without waiting for the dust to clear, Jack raced down the dark hallway (the two small lightbulbs had been destroyed by the grenade) and took the stairs two at a time. As he reached the entrance to the tunnel he looked down and saw that they were out of time…