Snatch and Grab

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 *Part One: "Calm Before the Storm"*

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“Does he have a WMD?”

“I don't know Tiny.”

“Does he got some kind of secret
underground mega army?”

“I. Don't. Know. Tiny.”

“Oh, I know! Hes got some kind of ray
that instantly kills anyone associated with Hat-Top.”

“Do you ever actually listen to the
shit that comes out of your mouth?” Squire jumped down off the top
bunk, starring at the large man in disbelief.

“No sir I do not, I find it messes
with my rhythm.” He said with a smirk “I'm just trying to find
out why they would waste our abilities on dragging some kind of dirty
mountain hermit out of his hidey-hole.”

Juno scoffed from the other side of the
room “The only ability you have is the uncanny one to speak out of
your ass.”

“Alls I'm saying is...” Tiny glared at her for a moment “Don't you guys think that us, the most elite
unit in this whole outfit; got something better to do than drag some fuckin' hobo out of the dirt?”

“What I think, is that you need to
stop whining and fall in for briefing” John said as he walked into
the room, sitting at a long table at the end of the barracks hall.
Everyone slowly made their way over to the table and took their
seats, after everyone settled in he began his briefing.

“Alright everyone, this one comes
right from the top. Tomorrow we are going to be commencing operation
'Snatch and Grab' in collaboration with MTF-Theta 7 'Hammer Down',
they're basically gonna be our backup on this, holding off and
hostiles or insurgent forces that may be in the mission area while we
pursue our objective. Speaking of which, our main objective is the
POI only known as Gil, he's a reclusive hermit with ties some kind of
ties to HAT-TOP. And that's all Sam told me, as usual we are on a
mission critical info only basis here. All-in-all should be a pretty
simple mission. Bust in, grab the hermit, exfil by Chopper at the top
of the mineshaft and home in time for lunch. Any questions? Good. Now
get some sleep we're Oscar-mike at 0400. Squire and Tan can brief you
on any other details you need, Dismissed!”

After a couple more minutes of marking
areas on maps and hashing over details, Alpha-1 all made their way to
their bunks and settled in, thinking about the mission they had ahead
of them.

“Back home before lunch, heh.
Whatever you say cap.” Tiny sighed as his eyes closed.

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               *Part Two: "Here Drops the Sword of Damocles."*

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A single Humvee rumbles up a rocky dirt path, slowly making its way through the dense forest to an old abandoned mineshaft; which if the intel was good, contained just what Sam needed to turn the tides of this war.

Squire held onto the grips of the 50.cal tightly as he swung the turret around, slowly scanning the trees as the vehicle made its way through. Inside the truck Green was at the wheel, chewing on his lip as he ran over the list of supplies in his medkit over and over, John sat next to him with a map sprawled across the dashboard marking locations and reviewing the exfil points. In the back Tan was looking out the window, absentmindedly fiddling with the pin on a grenade as he watched the nature rush passed the truck, Tiny checked the breach on his shotgun and finished loading the shells before placing it between his legs, And in the middle sat Sam, arms folded and starring straight ahead.

"You know, I really wish you would've stayed back at camp with Theta-7" John looked back at sam, folding the map and shoving it into a pocket.

Sam chuckled "I can damn well handle myself, you know that better than anybody."

"Yeah I know, that's not the point though. We're fighting a losing war here Sam..." He paused for a moment with a grimace, saying it outloud didn't feel nice. "And if anything happened to you, well that'd be game over."

The truck sat in silence for a moment, as Sam chewed his tongue for a moment while thinking on the other's words. The silence was broken by a squawk from the truck's radio

"I'm in position here at the overwatch point and uh, I gotta be honest cap. This place looks like a shithole, you sure some bigshot ex-HAT TOP guy is using this place as a base?" Juno's voice rang out through the truck as John smirked and picked up the receiver.

"Yeah thats uh, kind of the point June."

"Yeah I wasn't expected a big fuckoff neon sign or something, its just...It looks like nobody has set foot near this place in decades." She retorted. "Anyways I'm all set up here, got a pretty good view of the surrounding area so if anybody shows up I'll be able to keep you boys alive."

"Oh Juno, What would we do if you weren't here to babysit us incompetent jokers?" Tan said with a sarcastic twinge in his voice.

She laughed "I don't know about the others, but you'd definitely be about six feet under the dirt by now Tan."

Squire rolled his eyes at the continued bickering, removing his headset to adjust his hat, as he placed it back on he looked up and saw something at the end of the road, he squinted his eyes as he steadied his grip on the turret.

"Wait what the fuc-" Squire was cut off suddenly as a rifle round connected with his chest and he collapsed into the cab of the Humvee.

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                   *Part Three: "Could be Worse, I Guess."*

```

The next couple moments were a blur as Squire's body crumpled down into the cab of the truck, Juno was yelling over the radio but nobody was listening. bullets started slamming into the truck as green wrenched the wheel to the left and sent the Humvee careening off the road into the woods, after about 30 seconds of dodging trees and bullets, He screeched on the breaks and started climbing into the backseat with medical kit in hand John loaded his rifle and looked to the back.

"Tan, drivers seat! Sam I need you on that 50. right now!" He screamed, taking potshots out of the window at the rapidly approaching enemy trucks down the hill, all brandishing that familiar hat top logo.

Juno screamed over the radio "HEAVY FIRE FROM HAT-TOP FORCES, THEY CAME OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE!"

John picked up the radio, keeping his head down as Tan climbed into the driver's seat and the humvee started back up. "Yeah you aren't fuckin kidding. Squire is hit. and we are being pursued by 5-plus fast movers. Call in Theta-7 and get to cover until they arrive, We're incoming, we should be at your position in five!"

Green sat over Squire's body in the back, ripping his vest off, and pulling of the older man's cap, letting his greying hair fall into his face.

"F-Fuck S, you really caught one here." he said nervously, cutting his shirt off with scissors.

Squire leaned his head up weakly, grunting with the effort "Not the first time kid, how bad is it?" He half-whispered, trying to stay conscious.

Green was already at work disinfecting the wound and quickly unwrapping the gauze with shaky hands "Could be worse...Uhm, I guess. It went c-clean through your shoulder and didn't anything too important." He injected Squire with some morphine and leaned him up against the seat. "Alright that's about all I can do for you now, just stay calm. Try and stay conscious and get your gear together, we still need you for this mission."

Squire weakly slicked his hair back and put the cap back on, putting his PDW in his lap "Thanks son, I'll be ready in a minute, I've lived through a lot worse than this."

Sam finished off the last truck pursuing them, riddling the wheels with bullets and swinging the turret around to the front as the pursuing truck was sent flying off the side of the road. His eyes widened slightly as their Humvee screeched to a halt near the the mine entrance.

"I uh, think we got contact." He says as he stares at the dozens of HAT-TOP trucks and helicopters barrelling towards them.

John swallows harshly as he steps out of the Humvee, and looks up to Juno's position in the trees. "You...did call for that backup right?"

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     *Intermission: "Debriefing with Theta-7 Commander William J. **[REDACTED]**"*

```

>**After Action Report (A.F.R.) for: Commander William J. [REDACTED]**

 >**Interview Conducted By: R.R.H. Captain John [REDACTED]**

 ~For the rest of the report, they will be referred to as "W" and "J" respectively.~

**J:** Welcome, please take a seat. Today I'm going to be debriefing you on the actions performed by your unit during Operation "Snatch and Grab". You're familiar with this procedure yes?

**W:** Yeah I got it, where do you want me to begin?

**J:** Preferably when you first got the call to mobilize.

**W:** Sure. So after about 30 minutes and some change after you all left Base Camp, we get a call from one of your agents requesting immediate back-up of all my available men to your location. I immediately sent out the alert to all squad leaders and within 5 minutes I had my entire force of 300 men ready for transport.

**J:** Alright., thank you. Now please tell me what happened when you arrived at the target location.

*~W leans back in his chair, grimacing slightly~*

**W**: You know what happened.

**J:** Please, for the report.

**W:** We got **[Expletive Removed]** slaughtered John. By the time we arrived the fighting had already began. you all were hunkered down near the mine entrance when we rolled up, HAT-TOP had brought in the big guns for this. For one they had about a hundred more guys than us, not to mention they also had Two (2) tanks and Three (3) Apaches backing them up...we were not prepared for it. It was bloody D-Day when we arrived. Before we could even start opening fire two of my APC's were already in flames....Thirty men in each of those metal coffins....

*~W pauses for a moment~*

**W:** By the time we had gotten organized enough to return fire I'd already lost about Fifty of my men. After I got the anti-vehicle squads up and running to focus on their armor, I made my way over to you. Right as I reached you and your squad at the Mine Entrance there was an explosion. enemy RPG blast threw us all down and covered the entrance in rock. after the shock wore off I saw you and your squad already moving to find an alternate entrance and link up with the rest of your team. I tried to yell to you about how we couldn't hold back a force of this size, but you just said something about it being too late to scrub the mission. and to defend the entrance with everything we had. and then you were gone.....You left us there to die John. to give you a few more minutes to find whatever you were doing in that place...Already scrubbed my memory didn't you, **[Expletive Removed]** not even going to let me remember the whole mission after all this you **[Expletive Removed]**

**~WIP~**

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