1547 hrs.Undisclosed Date
Fort Benning, Georgia
Camouflaged men are sitting and kneeling everywhere on the concrete pad, disassembling and cleaning weapons.
"Lampright! Front and center!"
One of the men, helping a gunner clean his M-249, stood up, slung his rifle, and walked over to the officer and saluted.
"Colonel, Captain Lampright reporting, sir."
"At ease Lampright."
"What's this about, sir?"
"Grab your gear. You're bein' transferred."
"Transferred? What's this about?"
"They asked for the best of our best. So I chose you."
"Thank you sir. So what did you volunteer me for?"
"You're bein' grabbed by the U.N. They want you to lead an operations group in support of one of their pet projects."
"U.N.? Great. Frickin' great. Where is it?"
"That's the best part. Pack your bags, you're goin' to Japan."
2134 hrs.Undisclosed Date
Aboard a C-130 to Tokyo-3, Japan
Lampright glanced around the cargo bay for the hundredth time at the other four occupants of the large aircraft, each one wearing a uniform from a different branch.
"So, you guys here for the whole 'top secret U.N.' thing too?" Lampright said, breaking the relative silence of the cargo area.
"Yep." replied a guy in a marine enlisted uniform.
Lampright unstrapped himself and walked over to the walked over to the other four and shook each of their hands in turn.
"Captain Eric Lampright, Army Rangers. I'm supposed to run this unit, whatever the hell it is."
"Staff Sergeant Henry Carey, Air Force Special Operations. I'm a team leader."
"Staff Sergeant Rick Jackson, Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta. I can put a 40 mil through a firing slit at a hundred meters."
Gunnery Sergeant Ben Maloy, Marine Force Recon, AR."
"Chief Petty Officer Daniel Cooper, Navy SEALs. I'm a demo specialist."
"Good to meet you all, since we'll probably be working together. Cooper, long time no see."
1443 hrs.Undisclosed Date +1
Outside Gendo Ikari's Office, NERV Headquarters
Lampright dressed in his Class B knocks on the door of the facility commander, Gendo Ikari.
"Come in."
Lampright opens the door and steps in and snaps to attention.
"Captain Lampright reporting sir."
"Take a seat, captain."
"Thank you, sir." Lampright replied and sat down.
"What do you need, soldier?"
"Well sir, I've read my brief, and it really doesn't clarify what my team and I are supposed to do."
"You and your 'team' are supposed to do as you're told."
'Clarifies a lot, jack-ass.' Lampright thought.
"What is our purpose, then, sir?"
"Your 'purpose' is the execution and support of small scale military actions near and within their facility, and operations pertaining to the continued operation and well-being of NERV and it's personnel."
'Better. At least now I know my job.' He thought.
"Alright, sir. Who is my immediate superior?"
"That would be Captain Katsuragi, the operations head. She won't be arriving for several days, maybe even a week."
"Alright sir. I have some requests that will seem kind of unorthodox, but-"
"Whatever you need, you have my authorization. Whatever allowances you've had arranged will, however, be subject to review by Captain Katsuragi."
"Understood. I'll be getting my team situated until then."
"Dismissed."
Lampright stood up and saw himself out of the office. He returned to his quarters and changed into his BDUs and heads to their designated office space that had so far only really been used as a rally point. He did a quick count of the men, and, seeing they were all there, started his brief.
"Let's get a few things straight here. I am Captain Lampright, and I'm in charge of this outfit. Upon issue of weapons, you will carry your sidearm everywhere, including to PT. Each day will start at 0500. At that time, your will meet me, in PT gear, at the door of this office. On Sundays, you will report here for PT at 0800, upon completion, you will be dismissed for two hours for religious practices, after which you will report back here, understood?"
The troops all mutter something to the effect of affirmative.
"I really don't have to tell you this, but I will anyway, just for purposes of CYA. Let's try to behave, alright? We are frickin' guests."
"So let's get introductions out of the way. The time will come soon when all of us will depend on each other, so let's get to know each other. Name, position and where you came from."
"And favorite color!" Someone yells from the back.
"I'm Element Commander Eric Lampright, from the U.S. Army Rangers."
"I am Assistant Element Commander Boris Denisovich, from Russian Airborne Spetsnaz."
"John Howard, British SAS, I lug the rad-telo."
"I am Fritz Jaeger, German Airborne, I am a long-range marksman."
"Sniper!" Someone yells from the back, receiving a dark look from Jaeger.
"Pat Smith, medic from the French Foreign Legion."
"Henry Carey, 1st Team Leader, formerly of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Group."
"Daniel Cooper, rifleman and demo expert from the U.S. Navy SEALs."
"Jeff Montgomery, British SAS grenadier."
"Machine gunner Dick Larson, Canadian JTF-2."
"Toji Sonoda, of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. I am the 2nd Team Leader."
"Michael Herford, Australian SASR, I'm an anti-tank gunner."
"Rick Jackson, U.S. Army, Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta. I'm a grenadier."
"Automatic rifleman Ben Maloy, U.S. Marine Force Recon."
"Great now that we know each other, we can all be friends, right? Alright boys, and now for the moment you've all been waiting for, our tour of the armoury."
This idea is met with approval by all of the troops. The troops head to the armoury, walking down the new halls of the NERV building, the only troops in any kind of field uniform, and eventually reach the armoury where they pick through the weapons supply.
"Is everybody's favorite pick here?"
Everyone remarks to the affirmative.
"Alright. Everybody draw their weapons, two hundred rounds for your main, and four mags for your sidearm. Whenever weapons are issued, you'll return everything but your sidearm and it's ammo. Those are for you to keep in case somethin' goes down and you can't make it to the armoury."
Everyone finishes drawing, and Lampright signs for everything.
"Alright. Now, move to the range. We'll clean, customize and zero there."
The troops spend the rest of the afternoon, and part of the evening cleaning, installing SOPMODs, and zeroing their weapons. As they finish, they return their weapons and trickle back to their quarters.
2323 hrs.Undisclosed Date +6
Residential Area, NERV Headquarters
'I wonder who's gettin' the empty room next door.' Lampright wondered for the fifth time as he returned home to his quarters. He had just finished spending about three hours looking over the HQ's floor plans. Just as he opened the door, radio blared to life.
"Lampright assemble your team and report to the briefing room immediately."
"Roger that."
Lampright walked down the row, pounding on each door.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go! Command's got a job for us! Meet in the briefing room in full combat attire!"
While the men were dressing, Lampright grabbed all his combat gear and reported to the briefing room where Mr. Ikari was waiting.
"What's the news, sir?" Lampright said once his team was assembled.
"The 'news' captain, is that a van full of NERV personnel on it's way here from the airport was hi-jacked and the personnel held hostage. We have a location on the personnel because of the tracker installed on all NERV vehicles. I do not need to tell you NERV position on negotiating with terrorists."
"So we're supposed to do a hostage rescue?"
"Yes, but I want an example made of these men."
"You want all of them dead, da?" Denisovich put in.
"Yes."
"Alright. I'm gonna need all the info you have on the hide-out and the terrorists, pictures of all the NERV personnel, two helicopters for deployment that can be on stand-by in the area, a terrain map with a scale of one inch to ten yards centered on the camp, and a live recon feed of the area."
"Understood."
"I want it all in the briefing room, ASAP. Everybody go grab your weapons and report back here at 0015. Jaeger, and Denisovich, you guys draw your gear and report back here. You guys are gonna be helping me with the planning. Denisovich, draw my gear while you're at it. Sonoda, you'll supervise the weapon draws, make sure to draw at least four flash-bangs a person and detail your guys to carry demo gear. Carey, draw the rope, thirteen quick-rope harnesses, and two dozen each of sand-bags and riot-cuffs. Everybody understand?"
Everyone signaled that they understood, and everyone went to tackle their assigned objective.
As information began to flood into the briefing room, Lampright and Denisovich began to formulate a plan.
"I know it's a long shot, but we don't have anything else." Lampright said.
"Da, it COULD work but-"
"But nothin'. With the amount of time we've got, it's the best chance we have. Besides, I've done a similar op before, it'll be a bitch to pull-off, but I think we can do it. The big problem will be their force deployment and numbers. We don't have any real data on that. Just speculation and estimates."
"Da, and that's why the sniper's here?"
"Yeah, he's got a good eye. Even so, if they have more guards stationed nearby, like in the woods or something, our count'll be bad. So I'm not putting much faith in it."
"Also, we will be entering the building from the ground? Is the best way to clear a building not from the top-"
"Yeah, but that would mean dropping from helo, and they'd hear that while we were at least a halfa klick out. It's the best way. Besides, we're supposed to kill'em all, right?"
"Da."
0015 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
Briefing Room, NERV Headquarters
Lampright's standing in front of the other twelve troops with the map in front of him. "Alright, so here's the plan. We'll deploy by helo. Howard, Smith and I will be with Carey's squad, while Jaeger and Denisovich deploy with Sonoda's squad. Sonoda's unit will deploy here, north of the target and set up a base of fire. Carey's unit will drop here, move up from the south, and infiltrate the main building here, they're the assault element. As soon as we enter the main building, we'll radio you Sonoda. As soon as you hear that, you and your boys open up on anything that moves. Until then, nobody fires until told to unless you are fired upon first. We need to maintain stealth as long as we can. Remember, if we screw up, they might start wasting hostages. Carey's been a part of HRTs before, so he knows the drill. Everybody in the assault element follow his lead, and remember your MOUT training. Once the hostages are secured, they will be moved the roof where they will be extracted by helo. At that point we will sweep the area, kill everyone and destroy everything. Any questions?"
No one says anything.
"Alright. Memorize the lay out. Make no mistake, this one's gonna be close. But we can do it. Now then..."
Lampright begins the detailed explanation of the mission.
0153 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
Helipad, NERV Headquarters
Lampright plugged his headset into the intercom.
"You've been briefed on the situation, right?" Lampright said over the intercom to the pilot.
"Yes sir."
"And you have no problem with extracting from a hot LZ?"
"Always up for a challenge sir."
"Outstanding. Let's go!"
The choppers take off, navigational lights deactivated, and begin the flight to the insertion point.
0309 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
Somewhere near Tokyo-3
The chopper hovers about ten meters above the ground, and the ropes go out. The seven men of Carey's element fast-rope down to the ground, emptying the helo in under five seconds. Mean while, three klicks to the north, a similar scene was playing out. The element spread out and moved toward the objective silently in the darkness of the early morning. They're moving silently when Carey suddenly stops and signals to go prone. Lampright moves up quietly to Carey's position. Carey signaled that there were two sentries ahead, facing towards the compound. Lampright pulled his knife and motioned for Carey to follow him, mouthing 'on my command'. The two men quietly crept towards the two sentries. They each took a sentry, Lampright on the left with a bayonet, Carey on the right with a garrote. They each came behind their target, and positioned their weapons.
Satisfied Carey was ready, Lampright whispered "Now."
Lampright clamped his left hand to the sentry's mouth, pulling him against his chest, thrusting his bayonet in one side of his throat and out the other, and pivoting it, slicing open the man's neck flinging blood everywhere. On the other side, Carey was having trouble. His target had somehow managed to get a hand inside of the garrote. The garrote was pushing the hand into his neck hard enough to keep him from crying out, but was making it take forever to kill him. Lampright pulled out his silenced pistol and turned on the laser and shot the man twice in the chest. The man stopped struggling and Carey let go, at which point Lampright fired again, this time into the sentry's head, causing it to explode like bad fruit. Carey stared at Lampright, who holstered his pistol, grinned and flashed Carey a thumbs-up.
Carey signaled for the troops to move up, during which time Lampright wiped the blood off of his bayonet with one of the sentry's pants. The Team moved up to edge of the hills, until they were within LOS of the compound. The men waiting in concealment until Sonoda squelched on his radio, signaling that they were in position.
Lampright made a hand gesture and the seven men began to move from cover to cover towards the entry.
"Jaeger, if you see any shooters make moves, take'em down. Sonoda, if we receive fire, open up on source."
The solitary building was not well lit, providing good concealment in the shadows. Carey's team moved up to assault, while Sonoda's stayed at the edge of the hills to provide cover. The assault group was pressed up against the door, when Jaeger came over the radio.
"Jaeger here. There's a hidden trap door about thirty meters to the east of you, probably a secondary storage or barracks."
"Great. You reckon there'll be a lot of 'em outta there once the shooting starts?"
"Probably."
"Great. Herford, Jaeger's gonna point you at a target. As soon as the firefight starts, I want you to put a javelin right on it."
"Roger that." Herford replied.
"Out." Lampright said.
0348 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
The troops assembled in their entry positions and prepared to storm the building.
Lampright positioned himself right in front of the door, while Carey and Larson readied flash-bangs.
Lampright whispered "Three..." Lampright readied his under-slung shotgun.
"Two..." Carey and Larson pulled the pins.
"One..." Carey and Larson released the spoons on their grenades.
"NOW!" Lampright yelled as he fired a door-buster round into the flimsy door, blowing off it's hinges. Carey and Larson both throw their grenades in, which explode seconds later, almost at the same time as the javelin missile slammed into the trapdoor. The team stormed into the room, clearing the building from the floor up. Gunfire sounded both outside and inside the building, Sonoda's unit shooting anything moving outside the building, and Carey's unit killing anything with a gun inside the building.
Lampright came around a corner and saw a terrorist, who he cut in half with his shotgun. Across the hall, a grenade thrown into a room by Howard exploded, and Larson jumped in the door and hosed it with fire. While Carey, Cooper and Montgomery and Larson cleared the building, Lampright, Howard, and Smith moved to secure the hostages, moving to the most likely spot, the fourth floor, leaving the behind them the mix of bangs, gunshots, and shouts of 'clear'. Lampright and the other two ran up the last flight of stairs, and came to the door leading from the stairway to the first room. Lampright looked back at the two men following him, nodded and Smith ran up next to him. Lampright slowly turned the handle, opened it, and Smith threw in the flash-bang. The grenade exploded in a huge flash and a loud boom, and the three ran into the room. Howard wasted a gunman lying on the ground clutching his ears, Smith shot a dazed looking gunman in the middle of the room, and Lampright shot two near the left wall. As Howard drew a bead on the last terrorist, Lampright ran over to the gunman, tackled him, and pinned his arms behind his back. The hostages were crouched against the back wall, frightened by their ordeal and the sudden violence of the raid.
"Howard! Riot cuffs!"
Howard sprinted across the room, pulling a set of the double zip-ties from one of his pockets.
"Stop fighting!" Lampright yelled, smoothly and quickly pulling his pistol from his holster and smacking the bottom of the grip across the back of his head, stunning him long enough for Howard to cuff him. Howard also pulled an empty sandbag from his ruck and cinched it over the captive's head.
Lampright ran over and covered the entrance to the stairs leading to the roof.
Smith meanwhile was examining the hostages.
"Don't worry, we're from NERV." Lampright said. "Doc, how they look?"
"They look fine, some cuts and bruises, but pretty good."
"Outstanding. Cuff'em and bag'em."
Smith and Howard got the hostages taken care of quickly.
"Howard, radio."
Howard ran over and dropped to one knee as Lampright grabbed the handset.
"Lampright to Crow One. Come in Crow One."
"I authenticate, seven-foxtrot-eight-lima."
"The package is ready. Requires pick-up."
"Roger that."
Lampright hangs-up the handset.
"Smith, watch the prisoner. If he tries anything, kill'im. Howard, help me get the hostages to the roof."
Lampright moves up the stairs cautiously, and opens the door to the roof just enough throw out a flash-bang. As soon as the grenade exploded, Lampright ran out the door, finding an empty roof.
"Clear." He yells back down the stairs.
Howard and Lampright start bringing the hostages to the roof where they wait for the helicopter. The sounds of gunfire and screams hang in the smoke-filled air around the building. Suddenly Howard claps Lampright on the shoulder.
"Sir! It's Crow One! They say they can't see the roof through all the smoke! They can't land for extraction!
"Shit! Gimme your strobe! Tell'em the IR strobes are on the southwest and northeast corners of the building." Lampright yells as he scrambles around the rooftop activating the strobes.
"What's their situation now!"
"They say they're coming in."
"Sonoda! The helo's comin' in! I want suppressive on anything that moves that isn't on this roof!"
"Roger."
The sound of the gunfire below intensifies.
A round suddenly strikes Lampright in the side of the helmet.
"Fuck! Get down!" Lampright yells as he drops to the ground.
The captain puts his hand to his helmet to check for injuries, and gladly finds that the helmet completely stopped the bullet. He looks around and sees Howard pulling hostages to the ground.
"Sonoda, we got shooters aiming at the roof."
Lampright crawls to the roof edge closest to where the shot came from and looks for the shooter. Suddenly he spots movement.
"Patrol! Comin' from the west!"
Lampright begins firing on them. At this point Carey's team comes up the stairs.
"Carey! Get your guys over here! Helo's gonna be here any second and I got at least six shooters in the brush! Gimme a hand!"
"Roger."
Carey and his men throw themselves down at the roof's edge and open up into the tree line.
0351 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
"Helo's here sir!" Carey yells, stating the obvious.
"Help Howard load'em on the helo! I'll watch the trees!" Lampright yells.
Howard and Carey load the hostages quickly and the first helo leaves.
"Sonoda, is the ground clear?"
"Nothing movin', sir."
"Alright. Cooper, start rigging the building with explosives, then move to the underground facility. Carey, set up a base of fire on the roof top. Sonoda, sweep the woods west of the building. Denisovich, assign the command element personnel different sectors and start a body count. I'm gonna go check on our prisoner."
Lampright walked down the stairs, finding Smith sitting in a chair about three meters from the prisoner, lying on the floor, unable to sit up with his hands behind his back and a bag over his head.
"You think Ikari'll like'im?" Lampright asked, "I mean he's already gift wrapped and everything."
"I don't see why he wouldn't."
0432 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
"Ready to go. But sir, you might wanna take a look at this." Cooper said, climbing out of what was left of the entrance to the underground bunker.
"Alright, in a sec. Howard! Call in the bird!"
"Roger."
"So Denisovich, what was the final count?"
"The final count was 48."
Lampright whistles. "Damn. That's a lot of bodies. Alright Cooper, what's up?"
"Come 'ere and take a look, man. You might wanna bright light though"
Cooper drops back into the hole.
"Hey Smith, lemme see your hand spotlight."
"Alright." Smith says as he unclips a very large flashlight from his belt and handing it to Lampright, who takes it and jumps into the hole. He begins shining the light around the inside of the hole.
"Damn. This is a nice hole." Lampright says, noticing the drywall on the inside.
"That's not the half of it. Look at this." Cooper says motioning to a side room.
"Holy shit. State-of-the-art comms system. Where the hell'd they get this?"
"It gets better. There's other rooms full of everything you need to launch a terrorist attack. Guns, ammo, demo, even a pair of armoured vans."
"Well, is it all rigged?"
"Oooohhh yeah, with enough to blow this whole place twice."
"Good. Thanks for the heads-up." Lampright said.
"No prob. Let's get outta here so I can start the fireworks."
"Sold."
Lampright and Cooper climb out of the hole and board the helo that had arrived while they were underground.
0603 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
Helipad, NERV Headquarters
"What's the meaning of this? Why was I summoned here as well as security!" Commander Ikari asked angrily.
Lampright roughly pushes the captive out of the helicopter, who lands hard on the ground.
"I found you a present, sir. One of the terrorists."
"You were ordered to kill them all."
"Yes sir, but I figured you might wanna talk with him first."
"Good job Lampright. I'm sure he has some...interesting things to say."
"Outstanding. Now, I can give you the debrief in you office if you like sir."
"Excellent."
0734 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
Gendo Ikari's Office, NERV Headquarters
"And so sir, the op went pretty much as we planned. 48 enemy killed, two structures destroyed, and over a million U.S. dollars worth of equipment destroyed."
"Million dollars?" Commander Ikari asked.
"Yes sir. When my man went to demo the subterranean facility, we found that it was filled with state-of-the-art equipment. These guys had a backer with POWER."
"Interesting. The details of this mission are now sealed with a level 8 SECLAR. Anyone who needs the details of it will be told by me. As far as you and your men are concerned, nothing unusual happened."
"Hu-ah, sir."
"Dismissed."
Lampright leaves the office and heads to the office space where the rest of his men are stripping down and cleaning their weapons. Lampright joins them on the concrete floor.
"Well, it looks like we missed today's PT time, but we did good on the mission, and since we've all been up for the last 27 hours, when you're done here, turn in your weapon and ammo, and take the day off."
The troops, enthused by the idea, finished up their cleaning and one by one left, eventually leaving Lampright cleaning his weapon by himself.
0903 hrs.Undisclosed Date +7
F-NOG Offices
Lampright is sitting at his desk, checking over the official action report on his laptop, alternating between drinking a root beer and moving his head to the Rob Zombie playing through the computer's speakers, when a female walks in.
"Who's in charge of this unit!"
"That would be me, Captain Eric Lampright. And you are...?"
"I am Captain Misato Katsuragi, your superior!"
'Crap.' Lampright thought as he jumped to attention and saluted.
"It's a little late for that now, captain."
"Maybe if you wore some uniform, or maybe rank, ma'am, this wouldn't have happened."
"It's past nine o'clock! Where the hell are the rest of your men!"
"Sleeping, I hope."
"You hope!"
"Yes ma'am. I gave them the day off."
"The day off! What the hell do you think this is! Club Med!"
"No ma'am, I think this is a military operation. A military operation that requires it's members to be operating at peak efficiency. Hence the fact that I gave them the day off when they've been awake for the LAST TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS! And now that my report's done, I'll be joining them."
Lampright closes his laptop, and starts to walks out.
"Please close the door when you're done, captain."
"I'm not done with you yet! You also still have 13 weapons and over six hundred rounds of ammunition unaccounted for! Explain yourself!"
She look at the pistol holstered on his belt.
"Is that one of the missing weapons!"
"Ma'am, not of the weapons are 'missing', I know exactly where they are and all 685 rounds of ammunition. But yes, this weapon is one of the ones that has not been returned, as are the forty nine rounds of forty-five caliber ACP I'm carrying with me."
"Why are you openly carrying a weapon in here!"
"I'm sorry. It's my job!"
"No it's security's job!"
"No, MA'AM. Our purpose is to perform small scale military actions near and within the NERV facility, and to launch and support operations pertaining to the continued operation and well-being of NERV and it's personnel. In order to do so, I have decided that it was best for my operatives to armed at all times. I got approval from Commander Ikari."
"Well, Commander Ikari doesn't run your show, does he? Maybe you should have asked me!"
"I would have if you were here, ma'am."
"Well excuse me, captain! I can't be everywhere at-"
"Ma'am, you're a non-com, so I wouldn't expect you to understand."
"Security personnel are the only NERV personnel allowed to openly carry weapons. That's regulations."
"Ma'am we are combat personnel. Part of our duty is to provide back-up and support to your security forces. If we are unarmed, we are unable to-"
"You're soldiers! What do you mean, you're here to support security!"
"This discussion is unproductive. My AAR is in the printer tray, ma'am. If you have any questions, I can be reached by radio. Goodbye."
Lampright said and walked out.
'Bitch.' Lampright thought.
'Hard-ass.' Captain Katsuragi thought as she began to examine his report.