They were all gathered in Briefing Room One the third level. It was big enough to accomodate fifty people, but it commonly held half that when it was in use. The seats were arranged in a half-circle around a raised platform, or 'stage'. On the stage was a desk with various papers on it, a map flipchart off to the right of the table, and a few chairs off to the left. Rogue, dressed in his black mission outfit, was standing at a podium in the center of it all, and the remaining twenty-five members of Oversight were seated in various places near the fron of the stage.
"Before I begin the mission briefing, I have a few organizational announcements to make," he said as he spoke into the microphone. "Based on performance reviews of the last few missions we've conducted, I've decided to reorganize our team structure."
He stepped away from the podium, and turned on the radio microphone attached to his lapel. He walked over to the flip-chart, which had three lists on it, in lettering big enough for all to see. "First off, I'm not going to change the assignments for our air crews. You guys are doing a wonderful job as you are, and I know you guys wouldn't like it too much if I messed with you all."
"Lucky us," Ferret muttered to Shiva, who just chuckled.
Rogue didn't seem to notice the remark. "Team One will still be headed by myself. I'm pulling Ferret from Team Two, and putting him in my squad, along with Chameleon, Shiva, Ghost, and Grinder. I want most of our unit's sarcasm in one group for ease in disposal.
"Team Two will now be headed by Cypher and Owl, with Hawk, Hack, Jupiter and Demo will round out that team. Team Three will be under the tender care of Gunny. He'll be responsible for Javelin, Cobra, Bear, and Medic." All of the men and women he mentioned looked at each other and nodded. Rogue had, for the most part, left the teams together with a few minor switches in personnel and leaders.
Ferret rasied his hand.
"Yes, Ferret."
"Is it too late to change teams? I have issues about CO."
"If you have issues, I recommend seeing our doc. Otherwise, the changes stand."
"Just thought I'd check."
Rogue rolled his eyes, and turned the page on the flip chart. It revealed a topographical map of the terrain along the Canadian and New York borders, and all the assembled commandos suddenly changed into their game faces.
"Now, on to the mission brief. Our contact within the FBI landed a job for us. We're going out to intercept a group of slave runners are trying to bring in a group of women from Canada to be used as prostitutes here in the U.S.," He pulled out a laser pointer from his pocket, and highlighted an area near the costal area along the border.
"The women are being brought in using a side road that the Border Patrol and the Canadians don't often patrol. They'll be making the transfer at an abandoned truck-stop here," he said as he pointed to another region, "from there they'll be brought in stateside and given to various pimps and other never-do-wells."
Ferret raised his hand again.
"Yes, Ferret."
Ferret stood, the better for the others to hear him. "How many teams are going in?"
"We'll be going in with Teams One and Two as usual."
"Any chopper support?"
"Shouldn't be needed, but we'll have Storm Squadron standing by in our group's Super Cobras just in case."
That raised another hand from off Ferret's right. He turned to look, and saw that the hand belonged to Storm's leader, Shredder.
Rogue pointed at him, "Shredder?"
"Sir, I know we recently got our final AH-64D in. We've been going over them in simulation for a while now, and we might just want to take this opportunity to fly them for real."
Rogue considered that. The AH-64D was the fourth generation of Apache helicopters, and consequently was the most dangerous in its class. It was the first practical all-weather capable attack chopper, boasting with an accuracy of over 200% than that of the -64A, and has a survivability rating that was upwards of 500% than the -64A as well. It was an expensive craft, and consequently harder for Oversight to "borrow". Boeing was making the craft under contracts for the U.S. military, the U.K., and the Netherlands. Oversight was only able to acquire them en route to foreign countries, but they took time to build, and replacements of lost craft were questionable. The Super Cobra, a thin, light attack helicopter designed for the Marine Corps, are easier to acquire, but didn't pack nearly as much of a punch.
"Okay. Talk with Whistler to make sure he knows which craft to ready. You guys are going out with mainly light-armor and anti-personnel rockets, so make sure he puts them on the right craft."
"Thank you, sir."
"Anything else before we let Ferret spout off more sarcasm?"
There was assorted chuckles and grunts, but no further questions.
"Knock yourself out, Ferret."
"Been there, done that, not very fun, sir. What are the rules of engagement on this?"
"That's my next topic. Gunny, as you all know, is our weaponsmith, and has been working on a new type of ammunition with Medic and the rest of our base's science team. Gunny?"
Gunny stood up and looked around the room. His black hair looked like the end of an old mop, only much cleaner, but that was the only remarkable thing about his features. "We've been developing a type of ammunition that, instead of killing people, knocks them out. We've managed to make a type of bullet that is basically a syringe full of knock-out juice. What is does is, when the bullet is fired, a small needle shoots out of the front end of the bullet, and it lodges into the target. Upon impact, a small amount of gas explodes and shoots out a type of medicine that puts the target to sleep for hours. The time is takes for the drugs to work varies on shot placement, but it's a start."
Ghost looked at Gunny. "Do we need separate weapons for this?"
"No, we've made the whole thing fit inside a .45 caliber bullet, but it's a caseless round. It'll work for your weapons, but sometimes the bullet doesn't put out enough kick to throw the bullet out and work the action to load another round. We're working on that, and should have something within a week or so to try out."
Rogue folded his arms. "How many rounds of this have you made up?"
"Enough to give our teams three magazines worth. I didn't want to make too many of them since they're not perfected yet."
Marine thought about it for a moment. "For this mission, I'll make it an individual option for each of you. Get with me after the meeting though Gunny, I need to go over this type of bulllet with you."
"Will do, sir."
"Getting back to the assault now. Intel indicates that they'll be arriving at the truck stop with about two or three cars escorting a semi-trailer. Since this is a transfer point, we assume similar number from the other party. Although we don't know exactly how many women are being kidnapped, we expect there to be as much as thirty gang members there."
"Do we know what they're armed with?" asked Shiva.
"Not really, which is part of the reason why I'm having Storm Squadron stand by near ground zero. We're also going to make it look like it's a rival gang that's doing the ambush, so the investiagtors get the wrong impressions when they arrive."
"We're not taking the women back with us?"
"No. As soon as we neturalize the thugs, we're calling in the cops to take care of it."
"You mentioned that we're going to make it look like a rival gang did it. How? We're leaving the women for the cops to collect, and I would assume that they could tell the difference between 5.56mm bullets used by rifles and whatever they have."
"That's true. Did you review the list of stuff we made off with on our buffalo hunt?"
Shiva shook her head no.
"We made off with several AK-103s and matching suppressors. We'll be using them tonight."
"Tonight? When does this all go down?"
"We'll be taking our regular Blazers, and leaving them a good distance from the action. The surrounding area is wooded, and we'll be waiting there. It's right now 1912 hours, and we expect the convoys to meet up around 2200 hours. We're going to get there early and see if they sent an advance team to check the area out. Assuming they don't, or if we take them out without raising an alarm, we'll remain there and ambush them just as they begin the transfer. When they're all neutralized, we call in the cavalry, and they'll file reports backing up the government's claim."
"Ah. What about Storm Squadron, do they know that they're coming?"
Rogue pointed to a yellow marking below and off the left of the section he had marked as ground zero. "This is where the FBI task force is staging. They would be doing this themselves, but they don't want a bunch of dead officers around there."
"How charitable of them."
"That's besides the point. Storm Squadron will wait over here," he indicated an area off to the right of ground zero, and at a higher elevation than where the FBI was staging, "if we have to call them in, obviously it wouldn't seem like clan warfare, but I don't want to have to give last rites to any of us. Any other questions?"
"Getting back to the ROE, sir, do we shoot to kill these thugs or what?" asked Ferret again.
Rogue sighed before answering. "We'll give these guys a chance to surrender if we can, but I don't want anyone going out of their way to capture these guys. Your lives are not worth theirs, so use your best judgement. Obviously we want to take the hostages alive, but other than that, use your best judgement as always. Anything else?"
"Is it too late to call in sick?"
"Always, Ferret. Alright, Teams One and Two, report to the armory to check out your rifles. Be suited up and ready to rock by 2015. We'll meet here to go over any last concerns and then head out. I know you're all expert shooters, but I recommend checking out one of the -103s early and practicing on the range to get used to the weapon. Dismissed."
Rogue watched the pilots head out first. Although officially they were not members of Oversight, since every one of them could fly a fixed-wing or rotary craft, they worked and operated with them so often that they might as well be official members in name as well.
Ferret stood and walked over to his friend, who was busy packing up his flip-charts and other displays. Rogue had just put the micorphones back into the podium when Ferret walked up. "What's up?" Rogue asked.
"Thought I'd hang out with you. What do you think of the AKs?"
"Kicks like a mother, but they'll work great tonight. The suppressor works wonders as well."
"Any new info on the nuke trail?"
Rogue looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was in earshot. There were a few stragglers at the door, but no one was paying attention. "None. Ghost is still looking into it, and we're trying to find out where this guy might be holding onto the equipment. This guy got the funds for advance payment, and we're watching for any large cargo transfers that might give us a lead on where this equipment is stored."
"Until then, we sit and wonder bascially."
"For the most part. Wanna walk with me? I've got to get my sword and rifle from my office."
"Ah, another adventure of Ferret: Ace Babysitter."
It took me a while to come up with something to post. I'm getting about to the halfway point in my book now, and I'm not going to give anything away once I get there. I've been passing around my rough draft to a couple friends that I know at work, and they like what I've written. Maybe there is a chance in hell afterall that I can get this published. ANyways, I'll write some more about today's happenings later.
Time is short and talk is cheap. We shall speak again.