1850 ZULU
BASRA, IRAQ
It is late evening, and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Curtis Rivers waits under the stars as he looks at the fortified compound. He and his team of Navy Sea, Air, and Land forces (SEALs) are standing by to go in and raid the place for a known terrorist.
"Are you sure he is in there?" asks the lieutenant commander.
"I'm sure," says Colonel Hamdi Azid of the Iraqi Army. "We have reliable intelligence."
Suddenly, they hear gunfire.
"What the hell?" asks Rivers. He speaks into his radio. "What the hell is going on? I didn't give the signal to attack! Answer me!"
He looks at his team of Navy SEALs, and they look back at him.
"This is Alpha Team to Steel Rain," says Rivers. "Take down the main gate."
He and the other SEALs wait. Suddenly, shells from a U.S. Marine Corps M777 howitzer rain down on the thick concrete wall surrounding the compound. Repeated barragesd from the depleted-uranium shells take their toll, creating a breach in the wall. One of the Navy SEALs, sporting a machine gun, proviudes cover fire as Rivers and the others pentrate through the blasted gate.
The men stand against the wall. Rivers takes out an M67 grenadem pulls the pin, and tosses it through the front door. Seconds later it explodes, spraying lethal shrapnel everywhere. The SEALs, clutching their Heckler and Koch MP5's and dressed in their MARPAT camoflauge, enter the main building. They fgo through the corridors, searching each room for terrorists.
In a room which appears to be used as a kitchen, due to the presence of a refrigerator and stove, Rivers and his main team meet with the other team.
"You were supposed to wait until my signal," Rivers scold.
"Sir, I...," says one of the men who apparently leads the other team.
"We'll discuss this later; let's search this place."
And so the SEALs search for any hostiles that might be lying in wait, either with assault rifles or explosives strapped around the waist. After a few minutes of searching, they all meet.
"No sign of the package here, sir," one of the SEALs says to Commander Rivers.
"Call for the extraction," replies the commander.