Chapter 6: Operation Cold Fury

"Good morning, boys and girls," Sokka said as he entered the briefing room at 2400 hours, the sun had yet to break the horizon and all the members of JTF Alpha-One sat in their chairs with bags under their eyes. Some of them were sipping on steaming cups of strong coffee they had acquired from the mess hall; others were letting their coffee cool next to them as they took a quick nap in their seat; their head propped up by one of their hands. But as soon as Sokka entered the room they were awake, Sokka had told them before that there was no need to stand at attention when he entered a room.

"Operation Cold Fury," Sokka said as he switched on the Smart board and gave it a chance to start up, "Canada, here we come." The task force perked up at the mentioning of Canada, it was unexpected to say the least. "This is our target," Sokka brought up a photo of their target, "James Garret; he's a seasoned CIA agent and he worked their Special Activities Division since the mid-nineties." Everyone looked up at the photo and focused on the man's facial features, trying to memorize them. "Before all that he was in Special Forces and he has an extensive and very impressive service record." Sokka crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively as he tried to fight off the discomfort he was feeling from speaking in public. "He is not to be taken alive, that order comes straight from the top, understood?" They all answered affirmatively.

The maps were now fully loaded onto the screen and Sokka manipulated the image to show satellite imagery and photos of a formidable looking compound. "Garret had been spotted in this compound in northern Ontario," Zuko raised his hand. "Sir, where did we get this Intel and who provided it?"

"Our intelligence has been provided by the Canadians; we checked with the CIA, it's all solid and that's why they gave us the go-ahead," Zuko nodded, still not looking satisfied.

Sokka turned back to the board and pointed to the compound, "The compound has four sizeable buildings with in its walls and it's well-built although the structures are primarily made out of wood." Sokka circled the buildings using his pen, "Recent recon on the compound estimates at least a platoon sized element of troops inside. They're mercenaries; hired guns so don't hesitate with these guys. Lethal force is authorized, now for some good news: Canada's own Joint Task Force 2 is backing us up so it won't be just us out there." The energy in the room changed to a much more positive tone.

"We'll be entering the area of operations via HALO jump; we don't know what the enemy's capabilities are so we'll have to do this quickly and quietly. Our ride will be an Air Force C-17 and our pick up will be Canuck, Teo will have to sit this one out unfortunately. Any questions?" There were none, all of them were studying the maps and memorizing rendezvous points and their first and secondary LZ's. "Good," Sokka said. "This is our first time out together; let's get it done, Ooh-rah?" The last part drew some odd looks, seeing as none of the other unit members were Marines, Sokka's little battle cry was probably a little out of place. "Hoo-ah!" Toph barked back before Haru and Jet let one out too. Sokka smiled and nodded his head, "Well, get your gear in order, we're out of here at 0130 hours, dismissed." He heard Murphy give out a fairly loud "Hoo-Yah!" before leaving the room as well.

Hours later Joint Task Force Alpha-One sat inside the lumbering C-17; the odd time at which they had had to move out had messed with their internal clocks severely. As a result, most of them slept inside the belly of the craft. Sokka reviewed a map of the mission area, making little notations next to topographic areas of interest that he might need to remember as well as little calculations as to how much time it would take them to move between their first and secondary LZ's depending on varying conditions. He flexed his legs and arms occasionally to make sure they stayed warm. As they crossed into the sub-zero temperatures of northern Canada they realized that their Protective Combat Uniforms (PCU) worked very well. In all there were seven layers to put on, it was annoying, but freezing to death didn't really sound all that appealing.

Underwear, two layers of pants, two long-sleeve shirts, one jacket, and one wind shirt followed up by shell jacket and pants. They topped it all off with another pair of pants, waterproof this time, with a matching waterproof hooded jacket. Sokka had ditched the final layer having grown up in cold climates for his entire life; in fact he quite liked it although tropical islands always sounded like nice vacation spots. The PCU had to be mixed and matched to correspond with the conditions and terrain they were going to operate in though, that was a downside to the gear, it didn't come in white.

On top of Sokka's PCU, he wore his plate carrier. The small piece of gear provided him with a place to put his ammo, knife, and SAPPI plates. He had torn off anything that could identify him, including his dog tags although they had been told to keep their flags in place. Sokka glanced down at the American flag on his plate carrier and sighed, he hoped the Canucks wouldn't shoot at him because of it. On top of all that gear he had a thick suit that was designed to keep him conscious during free fall. He looked a like a big teddy bear, and moved about as fast as one. His ruck sack was strapped to his hips and dangled in front of his crotch seeing as his parachute was occupying the space on his back. In total, Sokka must have weighed over 250 pounds.

Sokka shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he slipped the map into his zip up pouch he had on his plate carrier. He looked around in the dim red light that illuminated the interior of the craft. He could see Aang slumped forward in his seat, snoring lightly, Toph was fiddling with her harness, Suki and Zuko were discussing something over a map while Jet listened to music and Haru read a book with the help of his flashlight.

The minutes ticked by, and Sokka took a six minute nap before waking up and taking a look at his watch. It was almost time to jump. He looked at Zuko who had been looking in his general direction and nodded. The Delta operator stood up and shouted for everyone to wake up and don their oxygen masks. They were so high up that they risked decompression sickness or hypoxia; nitrogen would need to be flushed out of their bodies by breathing 100% oxygen for about half an hour before the jump. "Get your masks on, breath deep!" Zuko secured his mask and gave Sokka a thumbs up before sitting down and inhaling. He was at a greater risk of hypoxia because he was a smoker and he knew it but he went on with his job anyway. They all needed to take deep breaths and relax, anxiety might screw things up. "Remember your call signs!" Zuko barked over the net.

"Vertigo," Suki raised her hand.

"Outlaw," Toph grunted.

"Pretty Boy," Haru banged on his helmet.

"Psycho," Jet responded with a "Yo!"

"Hammer," Murphy made his presence known.

"Elmer," Zuko stifled a chuckle as Aang shot them all an aggravated look before letting his arm snap up.

Sokka or Royal Six as he was known by his call sign, drummed his fingers on the tactical pad that was strapped to his left forearm, a wonderful and durable piece of technology and it would be even more wonderful if they made it bulletproof. "Gear check!" Sokka shouted as they reached the ten minute mark and they all slipped their helmets on. Everyone checked their own gear. "Five mikes!" Zuko shouted before he told everyone to stand up. "Chute check!" Sokka turned and allowed Aang to check his chute and then checked the Airman's. "You're good to go!" Sokka said.

Zuko activated the door and with a mechanical whine the howling winds were allowed to enter the plane. The cold night air bit at exposed flesh, the operators braced against it and looked down into the night. Sokka flipped down his helmet's visor and heaved a sigh to shake off any remnants of anxiety he felt. "Are you ready, sir?" Zuko asked as he took his place next to Sokka, he would be the second one out of the plane. "Yeah, I'm ready, what about you Smokie?" Zuko gave Sokka an annoyed look, he wasn't a fan of call signs either. "GREEN LIGHT!" Zuko screamed and Sokka didn't hesitate before throwing himself out into the inky abyss.

Once they were out of the airplane, they would have to quickly get into formation and fall at terminal velocity. Their lateral flight path and small size along with their lack of metal made them practically invisible to radar, which wasn't really a problem during the mission but it was better to over compensate in that area. Sokka's stomach clenched for a second and he relaxed, allowing his midsection to drop into the wind, allowing the air to flow around his body smoothly and stabilizing his body's flight. He checked the altimeter on his wrist, and waited, seeing human figures out of the corner of his eye making sure to keep their spacing so they wouldn't collide and possibly die, or be knocked unconscious and then go splat. They reached the right altitude and pulled their rip chords. The sudden deployment yanked Sokka's body upward and knocked the air out of him even though he had performed HALO jumps many times before.

Sokka and his team rode the air currents but he lost sight of everyone in the moonless night, but that was alright, they'd regroup when they reached the ground. Unfortunately fate had a different plan in mind and a sudden gust of wind blew Sokka off course and into a thicket of pine trees. He wrestled with his chute trying to see if he could steer it clear of the towering pines but then he saw there were few clearings in the area and the ground was coming up to greet him quickly. Just before Sokka flew into the snow covered pines, he saw a chute in the darkness no more than two hundred yards away disappear behind a thicket and then he smashed through the branches.

As he braced himself and let out a stream of colorful words, Sokka wondered how far he would plunge into the thicket until a sudden snap and a halt to his momentum told him he had become entangled in a tree. He cautiously relaxed his body and flipped his visor up and scanned the area around him. His chute had gotten tangled in a tree and he was about fifteen feet above the snow. Taking a little tumble might have been ill advised, but he might be able to reach the ground safely by sliding down a tree or something. Sokka sighed and undid his ruck sack allowing it to fall before searching for his knife, he was happy he had brought his KA-Bar along with him, it was just what he needed. He undid his oxygen mask and grimaced as he reached up and got a face full of snow, this wasn't the first time that Sokka had been caught in a tree after a jump. The first time had been during jump school where the parachutes they used allowed for far less maneuverability, he actually suffered from some bruised bones after cutting himself loose. But that was not one of the worse things that could happen to a man caught in a tree in a combat zone, the worst case scenario was that enemy soldiers would find him and take him prisoner, or just shoot into the trees and outright kill him. It was then that he heard a sound below him and he froze in place. Maybe he had been lucky and no one had seen him.

Sokka cautiously looked down, trying to make the least amount of noise he possibly could. "Captain?" he heard the figure whisper. Sound carried differently in the forest. "Captain, is that you?" the accent immediately told Sokka who it was. "Suki, I'm stuck!" he hissed back. "Why am I not surprised?" he could hear the smile in her voice. "I'm scowling at you right now, just thought you should know," Sokka growled as he began to cut through his rigging. One of the risers snapped and Sokka was suddenly hanging at an angle and he could hear the sudden shift of weight making the branches above him groan in complaint. Sokka was about to meet the ground. He looked down to make sure that the area below him was clear, and sure enough, Suki had taken several steps back anticipating Sokka's fall.

His buttocks hit the snow hard, branches and pine needles followed suit covering him as he patted himself down to make sure he didn't break anything. "Are you okay, sir?" Suki kneeled down and reached for her first aid kit, it seemed that Sokka's fall had looked pretty bad to her. "I'm okay," Sokka said as he got up and yanked his chute downward. He packed it and hid it along with his over suit. He was much more mobile without the thick layer of padding and the chute. "Royal Six, this is Smokie, come back," Sokka's squad radio had been squawking as he readjusted his headset and put his ballistic helmet on. "This is Six, what's up?" Sokka answered as Suki handed him his knife. "I've managed to regroup with most of the squad, I saw you go in pretty hard, are you okay?" Zuko asked. "I'm good to go, Smokie," Sokka answered.

"Roger that, I've regrouped with everyone else, is Vertigo with you?"

"Yeah, she is," Sokka checked his weapon as he listened.

"Okay, we'll wait for you guys and proceed to the rally point," Zuko sounded a bit preoccupied.

"Negative, move to the rally point now, we'll be right behind you, Six out," the comms went dead.

Suki had been scanning the area with her night vision goggles (NVG's) as Sokka spoke, she turned to him and asked if they were ready to move out and Sokka motioned for her to get moving as he took point. While there was very little chance of them running into enemy combatants before they reached their objective, Sokka didn't want to risk screwing up and losing someone on their first mission. They moved quickly despite their heavy ruck sacks, the snow wasn't all that thick either, it was about a foot or a foot and a half in most places and it had become a bit impacted allowing for some solid footing in parts of it. Sokka and Suki took full advantage and double-timed it to the rally point. As they moved Sokka picked up a distinctive sound in the darkness, it sounded like a snowmobile; in fact it was probably more than one.

He signaled for Suki to halt and then motioned for her to take cover when he realized that the vehicles were getting closer. The both of them set up behind different trees and watched as a pair of lights bounced towards the clearing right in front of them. Sokka flipped off the safety on his suppressed SCAR-L but let his finger rest on the trigger guard. Suki did the same off to his right; they didn't want to point their weapons at two people that might be non-combatants. Sokka keyed his mike, "Let them get closer, don't engage unless you see a weapon," he muttered. Zuko suddenly asked if Sokka had encountered hostiles over the radio to which Sokka responded for him to stand by. The vehicles came to a halt directly in front of the tree line, their engines went dead and the two figures riding them got off.

There were two men; Sokka could hear their voices, speaking a foreign language that sounded like Italian to him. He glanced down and saw beams of light coming from the weapons they had strapped to their bodies. At first he wondered if they were hunters, but hunters didn't usually hunt at night, especially not with assault weapons. They also wore tactical clothing which further told Sokka that they probably weren't locals. One of the men motioned for the other to wait as he hastily ran to a tree and fumbled with his zipper. Man would always be helpless to Mother Nature's call. "Vertigo, he's separating," Sokka began tracking the other man with his rifle, the infrared laser that was only visible through their NVG's painted the side of the man's balaclava. "You get the pisser, I got the other guy." He whispered as Suki's laser became visible for a second before it was floating on the pisser's chest. "In position," Suki hissed. "Bust 'em," Sokka squeezed the trigger and the weapon spat out a 5.56mm NATO round that went in just above the dude's left ear. He went down, his buddy followed suit. "Clear," Sokka said before scanning the area again and moving out. They wouldn't have to hide the bodies; they would just have to move quickly before the bad guys knew they were there.

"Good job," Suki nodded at Sokka's compliment as she switched off the lights on the dead guy's weapons and Sokka handled the snowmobiles. "Smokie, we just eliminated two enemy hostiles, be careful there might be more patrols out there," it took a while for Zuko to respond. "Roger that, we encountered four hostiles," he chuckled a bit, "they didn't make it." It took them at least half an hour to reach the rally point, and by that time Zuko and company had been there for well over twenty minutes. They had also made new friends in the form of numerous armed men who looked intimidating but were not wearing the same thing as the men they had killed before. "Captain Kunayak, sir," Zuko said, his breath evaporating into the air. "This is Captain Rafferty, Canada's own Joint Task Force 2." The two officers nodded and shook hands. "It's a pleasure, Captain, I'm guessing you and your guys have been here for a while?" Captain Rafferty nodded. "Oh yeah, we've been here since last night doing recon on the compound, these guys are pretty serious." The Canadian said.

Sokka motioned for Aang to come over with his radio; he took the receiver and checked with Aang to see if they were using the proper frequency. "Dragon, this is Royal Six, we've established contact with the Moose heard, over," Sokka smirked as he saw Captain Rafferty shake his head and stifle a chuckle at how the Americans were referring to his unit. Iroh answered, "Roger that Royal Six, proceed with mission, be advised, Big Eye is in the sky," the channel clicked off and Sokka handed the receiver back to Aang. "Captain, how many hostiles have you seen over the past two days?" asked Sokka as he looked up hoping to catch a glimpse of the unmanned Reaper drone circling somewhere above their heads.

"I'd say about twenty, no more than that," he paused and motioned for Sokka to follow him, "but I think we can subtract eight from that number now."

"You heard all of that?" Sokka said as he went prone at the crest of the small hill.

"Your CWO told us all about it; they must have heard the plane. These dudes are paranoid," Rafferty produced some chunky binoculars and handed them to Sokka who was surprised to find they were infrared seeing.

He could see the compound and its building, they were blurry shapes through the infrared lenses but he could make out the white heat signatures that were clearly human in shape. "I'm counting twelve either in the courtyard or patrolling the perimeter; I doubt our guy is one of them." Sokka handed the thermals back to the Canadian officer who peered through them. "He's probably all nice and warm inside, by the fire, that's what I think that heat signature in the window is." Sokka agreed. They would have to kill the guards quietly, either by getting close or by using their snipers. The second option seemed like the way to go. "Captain Rafferty, do you have snipers in your unit?" Sokka waved towards Haru and Jet and motioned for them to come to him. "Yes, I got two teams ready to go on the ridge to the north of us; this is the southern ridge so we can catch the guards in a crossfire." Sokka liked the way the Canuck was thinking. "Everyone, form up," Sokka whispered into his mike. One of the advantages of using a throat mike was that he didn't have to scream over noise for everyone to hear him clearly.

"Okay, here's the plan," Sokka began as soon as everyone had assembled. "Zuko, you take Bravo to the east and eliminate the guards the snipers can't get, we need to do this quickly, the sun will be coming up in a few minutes," Sokka pointed towards the compound, "The guards at the main gate will be a bit of a problem but our shooters will take care of them, afterwards we'll push through the courtyard and into the building." Sokka suddenly got an idea. "Captain Rafferty, do your men have a Javelin by any chance?" Rafferty nodded, and told one of his men to unpack the weapon. "What do you have in mind?" he asked. "I know it's loud but if our target has an escape tunnel of some sort he might use it as soon as we get into the courtyard, so I think one of your guys should hit the top floor with the Javelin as soon as we secure the gate." This complicated matters since both units didn't want to tune in on the same frequency, but Rafferty solved that problem quickly by telling Sokka that he and a portion of his men would join JTF Alpha-One in the assault on the compound. Rafferty would give the signal to the Javelin man. "Are your superiors cool with you doing this?" Sokka didn't want to risk Captain Rafferty's career with his own plan. Rafferty shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, this bastard came to my country to stir up trouble, even if he came from your country I think it's our duty as well to get rid of him." Sokka nodded and thanked the Canadian officer. They had their units get into position just as the sun was coming up, and kicked off the assault.

Alpha Team which consisted of Sokka, Rafferty, Suki, Murphy, and a second JTF 2 operative, would assault the side of the compound where the gate was located. Bravo Team, which was made up of Zuko, Aang, two more JTF 2 operatives and Toph would sweep the perimeter clean if Charlie Team, the sniper element, couldn't eliminate all of the roving guards. Charlie would also be in charge of firing off the Javelin that would initiate the louder aspect of the attack.

They split up and moved into position; it took them a long fifteen minutes until they were ready to execute their plan. Sokka watched as one of the guards trudged through the snow, he was about twelve yards away and approaching them at a leisurely pace. "Hammer," Sokka said to Murphy over the squad radio, "stay off the 48 unless we're made or I tell you otherwise." Murphy nodded and lowered his weapon. The Mk. 48 Mod 0 fired the 7.62x51 mm NATO round, but was a much more modern and slightly lighter weapon than the M60E which was a favorite of special operations teams in the U.S. Despite being the team's Doc, Murphy had proven to be quite talented with the weapon, but there was no need for such fire power at the moment.

"He's mine," Haru whispered over the squad channel before a suppressed round impacted the man's head and he dropped. There was a pause and another voice said, "Two tangoes down," another pause and three more hostiles were dead. "Alpha, you're clear on your end, Bravo, hold your positions," Sokka figured that there were still live guards on their end. "The sun's almost up," Suki said as she took over behind a large boulder with Sokka. She was right; they were losing the cover of darkness. They needed to speed things up. "Yeah… Let's get to the gate." The gate was a nine foot tall steel structure that was chained to the concrete wall with large rings that they wouldn't blow through with anything they had on at the moment. Fortunately, one of the JTF 2 operatives found a key on one of the dead bodies which opened the lock. "Captain Rafferty, tell them to shoot that Javelin off," Sokka paused before opening the door and waited for the JTF 2 officer to give the command.

"Javelin out!" Sokka braced for impact as the missile arched upward and that was when he heard the rattle of a machine gun. "Hard contact, we've been made!" Zuko grunted as he was no doubt returning fire. It didn't matter; things were about to get loud as it was anyways. And that was when the missile came down like Thor's hammer and rocked the top floor of the largest building within the compound, illuminating the interior for a nanosecond before sending a concussive blast out of the windows and seemingly vaporizing the roof. "Frag out!" Sokka turned to see Captain Rafferty, his men and Suki were tossing frag grenades over the wall just in case there were hostiles waiting for them on the other side. "Royal Six, this is Smokie," Zuko sounded out of breath, he was running. "We're going to scale the wall and get into the compound; you're going to have to secure the courtyard first! Move up!" he shouted to someone else.

For good measure Sokka tossed another grenade over the gate and waited for it to detonate. By that time they could all hear men on the other side screaming and even some automatic weapons fire and a string of explosions. The Marine threw the gate open and immediately leveled his weapon and saw a man stumbling around holding his face and screaming in agony. Sokka saw a weapon hanging from his chest, so he popped him twice in the center of mass. "Get inside!" he shouted as he sighted another figure and fired. Suki was in right after him, the courtyard was secure, four men lay in the snow either dead or dying from horrific wounds they had suffered when a generator had ignited and exploded. "Smokie, the courtyard's clear, get in here, now!" Sokka spotted a small shed and signaled for Murphy to take care of it. The SEAL ran up to the door and kicked it to splinters, "Clear!" he shouted.

By that time Zuko and company had climbed over the walls. "Captain, I got this building you take the big one!" Rafferty bellowed as he led his men to one of the buildings. Zuko moved towards the largest building, already prepping an explosive charge. Sokka produced a flash bang grenade and chucked it through a blasted window, it detonated just before Zuko placed the breaching charge. The comms were going wild with chatter as Charlie Team engaged every enemy combatant they could find; they were even asking if they needed to fire a second Javelin missile into the compound. Iroh was calling for a sitrep and Big Eye was standing by for air support if things got out of hand. But they dutifully held their fire unless the teams in the compound called for it, and General Iroh would need to wait until the Task Force had finished their business.

The breaching charge exploded, sending a wave of pressure into the room to further disorient the enemies on the other side of the door that had once been in place. They barged in, checking their corners, cleared the room and killed one man. Without wasting any time the charged up the stairs after tossing a cooked frag up into the small room up top. They had forgotten that it had taken the brunt of the Javelin missile's destructive force and had pretty much collapsed on itself. Everyone in the room had been killed, and the armed guard that had gone upstairs to check had been killed when the team tossed a frag grenade upstairs.

"Alright, check the bodies, this is what he looks like, remember," Sokka fiddled with his tactical pad for a few seconds, the fires in the room warming the teams bodies and the stench of charred human flesh assaulted their noses. He brought up the image that he had shown them before in the briefing room, but when Sokka took a look at one of the bodies he realized that identification might be more difficult than he thought when one of the corpses had been charred beyond recognition and another one was missing his face completely. "Aang, get over here," Sokka barked, he was still running on an adrenaline high, making his voice sound harsh like his old Drill Instructor. He tore the receiver from Aang's hands and contacted Iroh. "Dragon, this is Royal Six, the compound is clear but we're having trouble identifying the target, stand by." No doubt Iroh and Pakku were watching what was going on through Big Eye's camera lens. "Royal Six, if you can't identify the bodies then take DNA samples, wrap it up," Pakku favored the direct approach and he didn't want them on the ground for longer than necessary. Sokka unsheathed his knife and told everyone to take a finger or something along those lines off the bodies and put it a zip lock. It was an aspect of their job that no one really talked about, the media usually only advertised the sexy aspect of spec ops work.

"Sir, this looks like our man," Toph was crouched next to one of the bodies; she was turning his head, exposing a part of his face that hadn't been torn up too badly. Sokka walked over to her, stepping over body parts and rubble. "Yep, that's Garret," Sokka slid his knife back in its sheath and pulled out the digital camera that he had been issued. He snapped a couple of pictures of the macabre scene and up loaded it to his tactical pad and waited for a moment before it relayed the pictures to Big Eye, bounced it off a satellite and back to Fort Bragg. They filed out of the room and met up with Rafferty and his men in the courtyard. "We're all clear," he told his American counterpart. Sokka nodded and told him that they had eliminated their target as well, Rafferty immediately called for evac. "Alpha-One, be advised, the target's identity has been confirmed by Langley, excellent job." Sokka allowed himself to smile, their first time out together and they hadn't lost anyone on their side and they had accomplished their mission. To be completely honest, he wanted to do a happy dance, but that would have to wait until he was alone.

The mission hadn't hit any snags, and it hadn't been all that bumpy either, the chances of them encountering something during exfil were minimal. "We're done here, guys," the announcement was a welcome one, the cold was wearing on their patience. The Osprey was inbound and all there was to do was wait, they stayed alert and watched the perimeter in case there was some unexpected complication. The most dangerous parts of any mission were the final phases, people usually let their guard down and that was when an intelligent enemy attacked. Luckily for them, no such thing happened and they boarded the Osprey quickly seeing as the Canadian Air Force was going to level the compound. Two hours later, the compound had been reduced to rubble; JTF Alpha-One had joined their counterparts in an early breakfast, said good bye and promptly departed back across the border. That night, the incident would be called a live fire military exercise on the local evening news. The incident would not be mentioned at the national or international media level. American involvement would never be officially acknowledged on any reports.