Bound by Blood, Forged in Fire

Harbingers

The DOD greenlighted the transportation of Amin to the Patterson, the plan was to use him to manipulate the pirates into a more vulnerable state. Throughout the operation, Amin was under joint DOD-DOJ custody, and Officer Grey and Senior Chief Rider were already questioning him. As for the lifeboat hostages and the ones still aboard the cargo ship, November-Team's remaining four snipers were going to focus on the lifeboats otherwise the plan was unchanged. Gibbs and Ziva were going to provide additional sniper support from the Patterson. Jace and the rest of the air team were already in the air, he trained his weapon on the bridge, and he saw Rahim with five other pirates. He fired a shot to Rahim's head, the others dispatched the other five; once their job was done they prepared to rappel down from the aircraft. Jace transitioned to his HK416 and made his way down, the others followed suit.

They linked up with the others, making their way to the engine room. On their way they eliminated three pirates, once they reached their objectives Rhodes breached the door and Jace tossed a crash grenade. Miller and Dodd were the first two, Jace and Rhodes followed. They engaged the four inside, once they were finished clearing the engine room they checked for explosives or tampering.

"November-One to TOC, engine room is secure, over."

Jace checked in with the other members of Echo Team, they had secured the hostages. They went to the bridge to properly ID Rahim's body, fingerprints and facial recognition confirmed that it was him.

. . .

A storm had started pouring over the area, the Patterson had started towing in the lifeboats. The snipers had completed their objective and the crew was towing the lifeboats in. Once the VBSS team boarded the crafts jolts surged through both, and all the electrical equipment failed. The engines stalled, and everyone went to their emergency stations and initiated the appropriate protocols. The search teams found EMP devices on each raft, Gibb and Ziva tried to establish communication with the teams, Tony and McGee tried to hail CENTCOM, and Amato left to check on Amin with Grey and Rider. The Bridge reported an incoming storm, everyone rushed to get everything back online.

The SEALs stacked into the aircraft and RHIBs, rushing back to the Patterson, and all communication attempts failed. On the way back, Jace noticed three unknown boats approaching the ship; they were too far out for anyone to get a shot. They alerted Echo Team and continued to the ship.

Grey and Rider had finished interrogating Amin and the Master-at-Arms were securing him for transport to Guantanamo Bay. Until the engines were back online no one was going anywhere. The sound of gunshots put everyone on alert, the intelligence specialists left to check it out. They found NCIS agent Amato engaging three enemy combatants in a gunfight. Rider and Grey pulled out their sidearms and engaged the combatants. The power came back on, and barely a second later the alarm went off.

In the CIC McGee and DiNozzo were trying to establish contact with JSOC, they were waiting for Captain Dawes to come online when two intruders stormed in with MP5s. Everyone took cover, two sailors tried to return fire with their Berettas but were gunned down. Tony and Tim went for their Sigs, they managed to keep the intruders occupied long enough for four sailors to take them from behind.

Once the SEALs landed Ziva and Gibbs linked up with them and split into teams. Jace, Gibbs, and Ziva took two November Team members to secure Amin, the others went to secure the Armory and CIC. They found three hostiles trying to beach the room holding the GTNE leader, they eliminated the threats and entered the room. Amato, Grey, Rider, and the sailors guarding Amin were unharmed. The HVT was secure, Jace radioed the others and found that the rest of the ship was the same.

. . .

Jace was helping treat the injured sailors, four were injured but no one had been killed. His father walked up to him after he was finished, they were three days from Norfolk and everyone was ready for dry land. They walked to the mess hall, both needed a cup of coffee after the day had.

"So, you and Ziva have a talk?" started the older Gibbs.

"Yeah, she aired out some of her concerns with me and she's right." responded the younger sniper.

"You and I may not be the most talkative kind of guys but it's not a bad idea to ask for help."

They sat down after grabbing their meal.

"I've been having trouble keeping my head in the present, lately all I could think about are the guys I lost," said Jace, finally letting his troubles out. "From my time as a corpsman to my days in Team Three."

Gibbs took this all in, before Jace transferred to the East Coast his platoon had a mission go sideways. Kathleen helped him through it; after they moved to Virginia Gibbs kept an eye on him. With his wife gone Jace found himself unable to open up to those closest to him.

"I spoke to my CO," said Jace, feeling more relieved with each word. "I told him about my problems, I'm going to see a physiologist to work out what's physical and what's in my head."

"That's good, Jay. It takes a big man to ask for help."

They were joined by the NCIS team and SEALs. Ziva took a seat next to Jace, under the table he took a hold of her hand, and she squeezed his hand in acknowledgment. Julian was grateful to have her in his life and Ziva was glad he was taking care of himself. Gibbs looked at the two with joy, he was glad two sides of his family were going well together.