Urban Heroes

“Sergeant Major Daniel Stevens”, that’s what it said on the door of my office. It was another slow day here in Boston. But, I couldn’t really complain, a slow day meant that the BOTC (Bureau of Terrorism Control) was doing its job. We are a little known governmental agency that specializes in stopping terrorism in the U.S. and a ton of other countries. Basically, we are a cross between the S.W.A.T. teams and the C.I.A. But, the slow day began to take a speedy turn as I went over today’s intelligence reports. One spy team (Widow Company) that was patrolling the area and reviewing shipping papers noticed that a ship that came into the port from Iran had a few unknown crates to be delivered to a run-down building in the middle of a poverty stricken neighborhood, about 2 miles from HQ. The crates, when described by the workers on duty were said to have weird markings on them, like crossing circles and a few swords. So, the Chief of Staff on duty today at BOTC, John Henderson, sent three guys (including me) to the dock to question the workers.
As we got to the dock the crews were in the middle of changing shifts so it was a big mess. The crew we needed to speak to was coming in for a double shift right now so we were just on time. Working our way through the crowd to the main offices was harder than it looked. Finally, we got to the main guidance office.
“Permission to speak to management,” retorted Captain Harrison as he flashed his credentials.
“Sure,” replied the secretary (as if it were an everyday occurrence).
She led us through a door down a couple hall ways and into a well furnished office space. Once we got into the office (which I assumed had to belong to the dock manager) the secretary told us that the manager would be with us momentarily. We found a few chairs and sat down to wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, after almost an hour and a half, Harrison got up and started looking around. Another 10 to 15 minutes passed and Douglas got up so I got up to. The place was well organized with a few filing cabinets and a book shelf. But, with a more thorough investigation found a flash drive in the first drawer of the manager’s desk.
“Plug it in to the computer James. You’re the computer nerd in this part,” I said
“Hahaha... Almost forgot it was funny,” Douglas replied as he inserted the flash drive into the personal computer on the desk.
“Harrison” I said, “You and me are on door duty in case the manager finally shows up.”
So we watched and waited for Douglas to find anything interesting at all on the manager’s flash drive.
“Anything interesting yet Douglas?” I asked.
“Sir… you might want to see this,” he stammered.
I walked over to the computer expecting some kind of evidence that the dock manager was dealing drugs, or something to that extent. But, on the screen was much worse, the strange packages had definitely been documented. The cargo was shipped from Iran from an arms dealer named Ahmed al-Lindeen. Lindeen has been at the top of the BOTC’s most wanted list for as long as I can remember. His name continually comes up in major terrorist groups ranging from the Taliban to the OpFor. If he was the one who shipped the packages then that could only mean one of two things. One, there was an active terrorist group somewhere within Boston or in surrounding cities. Or two, there was a ghost cell in Boston that was going to become very active, very soon. Either way, this was a very bad sign.
“Copy the files and let’s get out of here,” I whispered to Douglas.
As we left the office and made our way through the halls back to the main lobby we pondered how to take down the dock manager. We couldn’t just camp out and wait for him to reenter the building, go in and get him. That’s the way someone ends up dead on the floor with a bullet in the temple. So I asked for suggestions.
“We could tell HQ to send in the Sniper teams,” suggested Harrison.
“No, draws too much attention,” I replied.
“Let’s just let Henderson know about all of this when we get to HQ,” said Douglas, ending the conversation as we walked through the last door.
The drive back to HQ was so much longer than usual. It was nerves, a combination of possible having to battle a terrorist unit in the city limits of Boston and the fact that the population of Boston could be in major danger.
“Well boys, what you’ve uncovered would have to be the most critical evidence in BOTC history,” Henderson told us.
“It is also critical that we act now,” I said.
“Douglas has also found the address of the building that the munitions were delivered to,” I continued.
“Great, you and a team of commandos will take the building; I’ll have Wolfpack and a team of snipers from Samurai Company ready for a night time assault.”
“Sounds good sir,” We all replied in unison as we left his office.
We reached the target building around 10:30 PM and set up a command center in another small complex about three doors down and across the street. With Samurai Companies sniper team stationed on the roof across the street from the target and Wolfpack set up around the building we went into action. Harrison would infiltrate with Pack 2 and take the upstairs. Douglas would infiltrate with Packs 3, 4, and 5 and take the basement. And I would infiltrate with Packs 1, 6, and 7 and take the main floor. During this the sniper teams would pick off stragglers and Packs 8 and 9 would create a small diversion.
“Sir, we still have no idea how many hostiles we are dealing with,” Harrison whispered through the comlink channel.
“How bout this, any angry Arabic man you see screaming at you in Islam and swinging an AK-47 you shoot, and anyone else is a friendly,” I replied a little annoyed.
“Yes sir,” Harrison replied.
“Ok all teams begin your specified assault,” I announced over the secured channel.
“Yes sir,” and “Copy that,” I got from everyone in the unit.
So the talking was over and it was time to get down to business.
My group went in first. We made our way through the alley next to the building and found a place to make an entry.
“Any guards on duty?” I whispered into the comlink to the leader of Samurai Company.
“A few sir, let us eliminate the guards and then make a cautious entry,” replied Captain Sands.
A few seconds past and I had to listen hard to hear the shots, but the silenced sniper rifles made a tiny pinging noise that an experienced soldier could just pick out. Ping….Ping...Ping Ping.
“Your clear sir,” reported Sands.
“Let’s move boys,” I whispered
As our group nicknamed Ballistic Squad moved into the main floor we heard over the comlink that Harrison’s party Predator Squad was entering the building next door and swinging grappling lines onto the roof and repelling across. And as we infiltrated the building Douglas’s party Reaper Squad smashed its way into the basement. The assault was at its peak and it was about to get ugly.
We set silenced explosives on the far wall next to the alley. As soon as I gave the order one of the troopers from Wolfpack blew a giant hole in the wall without any one hearing a thing.
“Split up and move out,” I whispered to the group.
“Stay frosty boys, don’t want any surprises,” whispered the Pack 1 squad commander.
“Copy that sir,” whispered the whole company.
The gun fire broke out at the front of the building meaning that the diversion had started. The next thing I know two men in combat armor burst into the middle of the room and started firing AK’s.
“Down!” screamed the squad commander.
But it was too late for a few commandos as two took chest shots and one got hit in the leg, arm, and stomach. I clicked off a couple of shots with my M14 and hit the one on the right in the chest. More enemy poured into the room and started taking cover behind anything they could find. It was now a storm of bullets everywhere. In the front of the room behind a stack of crates an enemy had set up a gun emplacement with two MG4’s.
“Take out that heavy gun emplacement now!” I screamed to the commandos taking cover behind me.
One commando managed to take a shot with his UMP45 that hit the main gunner in the throat. After s few more minutes we had almost cleared the room when an announcement from the sniper teams commander.
“Two trucks mobilizing from around the back of the building,” announced Sands over the comlink. “What should we do sir?” he said after he was done.
“Neutralize them, don’t let them get away,” I said.
“Copy that,” replied Sands.
We were almost done mopping up the stragglers of the enemy group when we heard a series of explosions. As soon as they stopped gunfire broke out and the comlink lit up with noise.
“Bloody hell the trucks are bullet proof!” screamed Sands.
“It’s a trap!” someone yelled in the background.
“Talk to me Sands,” I yelled. “What’s going on!?” I said with a little anxiety building.
“Sir, enemy troops ambushed Packs 8 and 9 with RPG shots and machine gun fire!” Sands screamed over the intense background noise.
“Sending reinforcements now!” I yelled.
“Hurry sir!” was all I heard over someone screaming for a medic.
I ordered the rest of my squad to assist the sniper and diversion teams. We took the main entrance out and what we found was absolute destruction. There was a thick smoke cover because one of the RPG rounds had obviously destroyed quite a few cars. The remainder of Packs 8 and 9 were pinned down and the sniper teams were losing men fast because one of the shots had taken a chunk of their roof cover away.
“Cover fire now!” I ordered as the squad sprinted into the action.
We laid down cover fire for a good 20 minutes before we beat the remaining opposition into surrender. As soon as they stopped firing at us I told the rest of my squad to mop up and went running up to check on the remainder of Sands’ sniper team. When I got up to the roof the sight was more depressing than it sounded over the comlink. There were debris and stone chunks everywhere, with a giant smoking hole where the rest of the roof used to be. I looked and did a quick count of how many wounded and dead I saw. Out of the 25 man sniper unit only 6 men were left in fighting condition. 2 needed a medic so I called one up immediately because the medic on the roof was killed while helping an injured sharpshooter. I went to find Sands and debrief him.
“I’m sorry sir.” Sands whispered as I walked up behind him. “We let them get away.”
“Don’t be sorry, you did all you could to stop them. We didn’t know that they would coordinate an ambush.” I replied.
“We did get information from one of the captured soldiers that was very important.” I continued
“And what would that be?” Sands said, with a trace of worry in his voice.
“Those bullet proof trucks were transporting the contraband that was sent by Lindeen to the ghost cell. They are supposed to be headed to New York City.” I said. “But, the most gut retching part about it is that those trucks also had about 300 pounds of explosives on them.” I said.
“I don’t even want to think about what the ghost cell can do with that much bang in New York.” Sands whispered.
“Me either, that’s why it’s so important for us to stop them.” I replied.
“Oh, and I owe you one,” said Sands as we walked away.
“Sure anytime buddy,” I told him.
The next thing I know Harrison, Douglas, Me, and the rest of what was left of our assault team were headed to New York City. The entire plane ride we were thinking of an attack strategy for our assault. We also got to meet the new group of troopers that accompanied us. Our team was now Harrison, Douglas, me, the remainder of Wolfpack, the remainder of Samurai Company Sniper Division, and Raptor Company. The cool part about having Raptor Company with us is that they all used code names so all of the non-commanders each got funny nicknames. I also got to know their commanding officer, Captain 1st Class Rich “Shadow” Davis. He had almost the same personality as Sands, but totally different skills. But, the introduction ended and it was time to talk battle plans. We got to New York faster than I thought we would. As soon as the plane touched the ground everyone was up and ready to go. The first thing I noticed was that Sands was less energetic about action than usual. I walked over and talked to him while we were in line to get off the plane.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I got in line in front of him.
“I lost almost all of my men, and for what, the possibility that we can stop the ghost cell.” He replied angrily.
“If the cause is right.” I said. “They were prepared to die for the right thing, all of them, and we are to.” I finished as I picked up my equipment from the conveyer belt next to the planes exit.
“Yah… I know.” He whispered. “I wish we could win once and it’d be over.” he finished.
“Me to buddy…me to” I said.
The HQ that the BOTC set up for us was almost nicer than the one in Boston. But, we didn’t have much time to enjoy it when we got there because it was already 3:30. The captured terrorist had told us that they were setting off the bombs at 6:00 and no later. All of a sudden there were 30 or more sirens out of nowhere. A S.W.A.T. vehicle came racing past on the main street.
“Looks like they decided to start earlier than expected.” said Harrison.
“Let’s move out team!” I yelled as the group sprinted into action.
We followed a local news broadcast on the way downtown that said some terrorists had taken control of a huge office building downtown. There were about 75 or so hostages and the S.W.A.T. teams had been pinned down by RPG and machine gun fire. The first thing we did when we arrived was form a barrier with our Humvees and SUV’s. The S.W.A.T. teams looked so relieved to see us form a barricade. Over 80% of the units were already dead or injured.
“Move, move, move!” I screamed.
Everyone burst into action at the same time. Samurai Company jumped out of the Humvees and took out three guys on the roof that had RPG’s. I ordered all troops except the snipers and a few men laying down cover fire to move up to the front doors of the building. Only a few troopers didn’t make it to the building. We burst through the glass doors and ran for cover. There were about 30 or so enemy militia in the lobby. The fighting was brutal; right away we lost 10 men, all from Raptor Company. Shadow rushed across the fire and crouched down next to me.
“Permission to use Semtex grenades sir?” he yelled over the noise of gunfire.
“Yes Shadow, but be careful with the aim we don’t want to set off any explosive charges.” I replied
The next thing I saw was three sticky grenades go flying through the air. Two hit human targets and one landed behind a filing cabinet.
“Down!” screamed a trooper over the comlink.
There were three explosions and no more enemy fire.
“Nice throw boys.” said Shadow.
“Let’s move!” I yelled. “Split up! Reaper Squad takes the stairway with Wolfpack, Ballistic Squad on me we have the upper levels, and everyone else take elevators and room to room.” I instructed
Everyone went onto their assigned areas. I informed all of the teams that we were dealing with a hostage situation.
“Sir, on level two now, it looks most of the hostages are being kept on this floor. We already have over half secure.” informed Shadow.
“Sounds too easy” I replied “Stay alert they might have an ace in the hole.”
“Copy that sir.” I heard on the comlink.
As soon as Shadow responded I clicked to the frequency used by our unit and reminded the explosives specialists in each team that we had to defuse all of the bombs. I got solid copies from all of them and then my team finally moved on, headed for the upper levels and the most intense fighting.
Out of 20 floors and a roof, after the first 30 minutes we controlled everything up to the 17th floor. A total of 25 C4 bombs had been defused and my Squad had lost over 70% of its men while fighting in the upper levels. We fought our way from room to room all the way up for over 5 floors.
“3 more boys,” I yelled back to my squad who was following me.
Three enemies jumped into the hall and opened fire on us. I heard a few cries of pain and a thump as they hit three and killed one. I instantly took them down with my UMP45. Now I had just over 25 men behind me and we faced three floors.
The first two of the three only had about 3 or 4 enemy infantry a piece, but the last floor was going to be a challenge. We turned the corner at the top of the stairs and were met with a barrage of enemy fire coming from the hallway. There was a small lobby kind of entry way before the hall so we moved up the stairs and took cover on both sides.
“On three!” I yelled to the other squad members.
“One…Two…Three!” I screamed as the entire squad burst through the door and headed for the closest rooms. Only about 17 men made it in safely and began to fire into the enemy lines.
“Sir, vital signs are picking up hostages in the rooms up ahead!” yelled a tech specialist next to me.
“We’re going for them!” I responded.
Just after I finished reloading my UMP I got a patch through on the comlink. It was Henderson asking all units to pull out because there were hidden bombs that were going to go off in 4 minutes.
“Henderson... You there?” I asked into the comlink.
“Yes Stevens, go ahead,” I heard back
“We have hostages on the top floor and we’re going to extract them. Can you get a helo to pick us up off of the roof?” I yelled over a grenade in the hall.
“Negative, you and your squad have to exit the building ASAP,” he replied.
“But sir…” I started
“No buts Sergeant, that’s and order,” he demanded.
“Yes sir…” I whispered.
A few seconds past as I asked myself what I should do. By now there were only 7 or 8 other men besides me still fighting with one injured by grenade shrapnel, even if we could make it to the hostages we probably wouldn’t get out in time. So I asked all of the guys in the squad what they thought.
“We can make it,” was the general response.
So over the comlink I asked Douglas if the bomb teams were still looking for the bombs. When he reported only one I began to get worried. It was down to a final decision, leave the hostages and save his men, or, possible save the hostages and possible save his men, and possible get blown to pieces.
“We’re staying!” I yelled.
“Plan sir?” asked a young Lieutenant.
“Yah give me that Semtex,” I said.
I chucked the sticky grenade and hit the front of the enemies make shift barricade. BOOM, was the sweetest sound ever in this situation, but the stop of gunfire was even better.
“Move!” I yelled as what was left of my team sprinted for the hostages.
As we made it to the final room in the hall we finally found all of the hostages, but we also found the rest of the active bombs, taped to the trip wire on the door.
“Don’t move!” I yelled to a trooper that didn’t see the hair thin wire spread waist high across the doorway.
“Go, be very careful,” I whispered to the explosives tech who stepped forward.
He crawled under the wire and went to work defusing the bombs. After the longest minute of my entire life the tech stepped into the doorway with a bomb timer that had 3 seconds frozen on it, cut the wire and stepped back out into the hallway.
“Wow,” I said. “A little close,” I finished.
“Yeah, permission to sit down sir?” asked the tech.
“Permission granted,” I said as the tech dropped to his knees and wiped sweat from his face.
Out of nowhere we heard what sounded like a helicopter on the roof.
“Let’s Go!” I yelled to the three men next to me.
As we burst through the door to the roof what we saw was so shocking that we all stopped breathing. The enemy helo was hovering and extracting the rest of the enemy from the roof. The ones helping them up were Lindeen and Henderson!” All of a sudden they opened fire and gunned down the three with me and hit me in the leg. I hit the ground and looked up. As I did the rest of the squad burst through the door and began firing. One lucky shot hit the blades of the helo and it came crashing down on the roof.
The second I got consciousness back I felt straight pain. I looked up and saw a flaming carcass of a helo on the roof and my squad lying sprawled around the roof. I got up, remembering my leg I struggled over to the wreckage. I saw Lindeen lying dead, but no Henderson. I turned to the left and took a pistol whip to the skull. Standing over me with an M9 was Henderson.
“You disobey orders and get your entire squad killed,” he said.
“And you’re a traitor and a terrorist, so who has a more severe charge?” I retorted.
“But whoever lives tells the truth,” he said while loading the gun.
“I see, a dead man tells no tale,” I spat back.
“Take this as your discharge,” he retorted with satisfaction.
PTANG.
I opened my eyes as Henderson fell with a hole in his head. I turned over to see Sands standing there with a smoking sniper rifle.
“We’re even,” he said.
“Agreed,” I replied smiling.