Location: Idaho, USA

Unit: 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta, US Army

Date: July 23rd, 2021 CE

The twenty-seven Delta Force members sat in the sloped classroom, all chatting and flinging bands around the room. The room was coated with rough stone walls and a stone ceiling held up by metal pillars. 

Suddenly the door opened with a creek as fourteen more soldiers quietly filed into the back of the room away from the Delta Operators. One of the Operators snickered at the newly entered soldiers and stuck their foot out in an attempt to trip the final one over. Unlucky for this Operator the one he'd decided to pick on was ex-Joint Task Force 2 or ex-Canadian Special Forces.

The Canadian stopped right before the foot and looked at the Delta member, "You sure you wanna do this?"

The Delta member smiled, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

The Canadian smirked, "I see," taking one step forward, he slammed the front foot as hard as he could into the American's leg.

The US operator cried out in pain as he recoiled in shock, "What the fuck!" He attempted to stand up before getting immediately punched in the face knocking him back into his seat. The Canadian then grabbed the Delta member's shirt bringing him no more than an inch from his face.

"I give you this one warning, your platoon commander has pissed us all off by getting one of our air support pilots MIA," he paused, "So I'd consider your next move very carefully," the Canadian threw the American back into the chair before lifting his foot in the air and stamping on the leg again, "It should be back to normal now."

The Canadian stepped away as the American attempted to stand again, he succeeded, "How the hell?" he asked in disbelief.

He got no response as the final Canadian sat next to the rest of his unit.

The other soldiers sat quietly, watching the chatty Delta Operators below.

The Master Sergeant locked eyes with a well-built mixed-race man wearing a British Army uniform, but on his sleeve wasn't the union jack but rather the flag of South Africa. Looking away, he caught a glare from the South African soldier.

As he turned to look back to the front he saw an ordinary-looking man setting up a computer. Leaning over a small platform the man quickly typed something into the keyboard before an image popped onto the screen ahead of them, it was a map.

The man began to speak, "Good morning troops, I am Captain Mclaw of the GOU, I'm here to brief you on your next mission."

The man was also dressed in a standard British Uniform bearing the union jack. On his hip, he holstered what looked like an M45 sidearm at first glance. Of course, no one would expect a modern soldier to be carrying around a sidearm older than everyone in the room.

"Two months ago the GOU stumbled across a concealed NZA military compound in Northern Oregon," Mclaw spoke picking up a pointing stick.

One of the Delta members raised a hand and before Mclaw could deny him, the Operator spoke, "And who exactly are this G.O.U?" he spoke in a heavy Texan accent.

Mclaw sighed, "What it stands for and its purpose is above your clearance level, but the troops in it are those sitting behind you," Mclaw paused as the Delta Operators looked back before starting to speak again, "We been sending in Operatives to observe and identify prime targets in the base, these are the high priority targets."

The slide changed to a picture of several NZA soldiers and an officer looking into a crate.

The Texan Delta Operator spoke again, "Who's the officer?"

Mclaw, slightly irritated with the interruptions shook his head, "Not the officer, the case," Mclaw flicked the slide showing a clearer view of the matt black container, "We believe it to contain a biological weapon which the NZA plan to use in large chunks on the US military. We've observed about ten shipments over the period of our investigations and Military intelligence believes the attack to be imminent."

A small group started muttering, "They're gonna use bioweapons this time?", others muttered, "First nukes, now bioweapons, these guys are insane!"

Mclaw raised a hand indicating for them to quieten down, "There will be four ground teams along with a close air support group consisting of the pilots on this airbase," Mclaw flicked the slide again and it brought up a map detailing the terrain, "The air support unit will use the callsign Hunger, while each ground unit will use the callsigns: Alpine, Burns, Den, Gewehr."

Mclaw paused looking back to the map, "Alpine unit will be the overwatch unit posted at the southeast side of the valley overlooking the compound, they will be comprised of three GOU members, and eight Delta force members of the Master Sergeants choice," Mclaw pointed now to the south, the entrance to the valley, "Burns unit will be responsible for a head-on but quiet assault, this will be spearheaded by the remaining GOU followed by a company of soldiers from the British 16th Air Assault Brigade, they will have no armoured support due to presence of missile launchers like Panzerfaust 3s and Javelin missile systems which we have confirmation of this base being armed with."

Mclaw looked to his team seeing two of his men high-fiving behind the chairs.

He chuckled to himself before continuing the brief, "Den unit will approach from the West and come over the hill through the thick vegetation, this unit will contain the rest of Delta and be supported by members of the first battalion from the First Special Forces Group," Mclaw paused, "Finally, Gewehr unit will be comprised of members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles and 75th Ranger Regiment working together."

The Delta members looked at each other confused before Mclaw continued, "This is not how callsigns work normally, and I know that, but we are currently in a war of disinformation along with direct combat. So this is how callsigns will work for this mission, each attack team will be split into eight, or a section, so when talking over the radio you will say the unit, then the section, then finally the number of the person you want."

Mclaw's disinformation idea was to mess with the NZA knowledge of how they assume the radio communication system works, not everyone was equipped with PUURS yet, so they had to be cautious about how they talk on the old system.

Mclaw explained further, "For example say you were the leader of the third section of Gewehr unit your callsign would be, Gewehr-Three-One," Mclaw paused flicking the slide again, "Unit leaders, stay afterwards, the rest of you are dismissed."

Jackson raised his hand suddenly, "Sir, does the presence of the Royal Gurkhas mean the main force of the army has arrived?"

Mclaw paused to think of a way to dodge the question, "Our units are stretched thin throughout Asia and Africa, currently we are on the defensive."

Jackson muttered to himself, "currently..."

Everyone except Zeller and the Delta Squad Master Sergeant slowly filed out of the classroom, leaving just the three Operators watching the screen. The Master Sergeant looked back to Zeller who was rolling a pen across the table in boredom. 

"Right then, you'll both need to memorise everything I'm about to tell you for the assault," Mclaw started.

***

Turner sighed, "So this is the big one?"

The two sections of Operators strolled down the stone hallways. Each one of them concealing a sidearm behind their waist.

Mabasa nodded, "In this theatre, it would seem so."

Mounts raised an eyebrow, "In this theatre?"

Soman chuckled to herself, "Why of course? We still have to take back China, Southeast Asia and Indonesia; along with completely taking over Australia and New Zealand."

Entering their dormitories, Mabasa sat on the bed closest to the door removing his jacket and turned to a removable panel behind his bed; pressing the left side of the wall a small part of the wall retracted before revealing a keypad and a small hole for a key. Mabasa removed the dog tags from around his neck, along with the two tags there was a small key. Grabbing the carefully cut piece of metal he turned it before inputting the code, 3318.

The wall suddenly popped open revealing a metallic hole in the wall.

Richards walked up behind him, "Aren't we only supposed to have six mags?"

Mabasa shrugged, "I take what's necessary."

Richards chuckled still looking into the hidden metallic compartment, a Vektor R4 sat next to several cases of 5.56x45mm NATO rounds with one drum magazine and eight regular IMI Galil 35-round magazines.  

Across the room, Keel York, an ex-82nd airborne soldier looked left to right before speaking, "Are we just not going to talk about Hunt?"

Mabasa looked up from his rifle, "What's there to talk about, he's a traitor, that's why we had to abandon the northern base," he thought back to the day they arrived back with Mounts and Turner. 

The base was on high alert, fighter jets were in the air; what little air defences still stood were armed to the teeth. The remaining ships of the 3rd fleet of the US navy, that survived Hawaii, were watching the seas ready for the impending attack. Mabasa remembered climbing out of the Blackhawk just for Mclaw to issue an immediate evacuation, they had one hour. Everyone was confused, they weren't anywhere near the front lines. 

"Mclaw, what the hell's going on!" Mabasa remembered speaking into his earpiece. 

Mclaw turned around walking away from the spinning blades of the helicopter, "Hunt's gone AWOL, he's not picking up any communications," Mclaw paused pulling a small pad from his backpack, "Watch this."

Mabasa remembered the footage, it showed a thermal image of one of the base personnel sneaking out of the base before shooting two guards. Mabasa remembered seeing the figure leave through the gate and disappear into the forest.

Mclaw nodded, "That was Hunt, he's the only base personnel not accounted for," he continued, "We believe Hunt may have been an NZA sleeper agent, we believe he has been given the recent order to attempt to sow distrust in Las Vegas in order to keep most of the coalition's resources focused on me."

Mabasa nodded knowing how much the US-allied forces would have to throw at Mclaw just to put him out of commission, "I see."

Mclaw sighed, "Get going then, we are evacuating in one hour."

Mabasa shook his head, bringing himself back to the room buried deep under the ground. He looked up at York, "He compromised the whole compound, that's it, just get ready for the assault."

Everyone else in the room was silent, looking at the loaded assault rifle being gripped by Mabasa. Slowly he looked down realising he had placed a magazine inside the rifle, quickly he unloaded it before picking up his plate carrier and shoving six of the eight magazines into the pockets.

Turner looked to Mounts confused before shrugging, "Guess we should get ready?"

Mounts broke his stare before nodding and revealing his own key connected to his dog tags, "Yeah guess so."

They both revealed M4-style rifles which were highly modified to their needs. However, Mounts's rifle was actually a German H&K417. Grabbing all six of his magazines he threw them onto his bed along with his plate carrier, day sack and an array of other bits and bobs from his wardrobe. 

Turner on the other hand placed everything down carefully and everything had a spot.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

Mabasa looked to the door before throwing down his rifle and running to the end of his bed, "Room! Room atten-shun!"

At the doorway stood an older man dressed in a beige beret, just above the wearer's left eyebrow lay a badge sewn into the beret, the winged dagger.

Turner, nor Mounts had time to correct his kit and get it squared away, so it lay there strewn across the previously neatly kept bed. They both quickly hopped up and got to the required position.

At the door stood a 4-Star General, Raiden Kyton. A veteran of the Falklands war and a seasoned soldier. He looked at the room eying every corner. He stepped forwards walking towards both ex-184th Infantry Regiment members, "Who is in charge of this room."

Mabasa stamped in, "That would be me, sir."

General Kyton turned around slowly, "Oh you are?" He paced forward, Mabasa felt a chill run down his spine and he silently gulped.

There was a long silence before anything else happened.

Suddenly, Kyton broke out in laughter, "Did I scare you?"

Mabasa's eyes widened, "No sir."

Kyton shook his head, "Good because I'm a lot scarier than any NZA soldier," he paused, "Anyway do you know where Mclaw is?"

Mabasa nodded, "Yes sir, he's in the briefing room but he'll be coming here soon to check in on us."

Kyton sighed, "Of course, he's in a briefing, anyway you lot packing for the big mission?"

Mabasa raised an eyebrow, "You know about that sir?"

"Of course, I know about it, me and Jonathon have been planning it along with several other military tacticians for over a month now," Kyton chuckled, "Anyway, if you need any extra weapons just give me a call, I can veto Jonathon's veto and he can't do anything about it."

Kyton exited the room closing the door behind him.

"Stand at ease!" Mabasa spoke to the whole room as they all left the sides of their bed.

Turner smiled, "He can veto the Captain's veto?"

York smiled, "He also called Mclaw by his first name as well, Jonathon."

Mounts rolled his eyes, "I'm just surprised he didn't yell at us for the shit state of our beds."

York chuckled in the corner, "Sounds like a you problem, my bed's fine."

Just as Mounts was about to retort, someone knocked on the wooden door, "Turner, I expect you to be out here in five!" It was Zeller.

Turner rolled his eyes, "tch, fine, give me a second," picking up his plate carrier he slipped into it before yanking his marksman rifle from the bed, quickly closing the metallic safe he slipped his dog tags back beneath his shirt.

Turner left the room, helmet in hand, "What's up Zeller?"

She handed him a notebook, "Read it, it contains our path to the sniper spot along with our primary and secondary objectives, it's everything we need to know."

Turner spoke confused, "Don't you and Burt need it?"

Zeller spun around before entering the room across the hallway, "I have a spare," she smiled before waving another notebook."

Turner cursed before shaking his head, "Yay, homework," he said sarcastically.