United Under Fire

Engage and Pursue

The teams met the Federales at the airport, an armed convoy escorted them to an unmarked industrial complex. There they met their Mexican counterparts, Mexican Marines, Fuerzas Especiales, and Fuerza Especial Conjunta. The latter two were Mexican Tier One Navy Special Operations and the Mexican equivalent to Delta Force.

The commander of the Mexican forces was Colonel Marco Barrera of the Mexican Marine Corps. He was of average height with a boxer's build and by the look on his face, he wasn't pleased with the addition of newcomers.

"Gentlemen," greeted the Colonel. "Once Sergeant Gonzales shows you to your quarters we'll start the brief."

Their quarters were on the east end, it was a wide space with their personal spaces separated by wire fencing lined with tarps in between.

Not bad compared to other hellholes they've been cooped up in.

They met in the Joint Operations Center in the middle of the complex.

"Our first lead is Antonio Gutierrez," began Agent Valeria Moreno, Grey, Rider, and Cole's counterpart from the Mexican National Intelligence Centre. "Vargas' main money launderer for the past five years, he changes services every six."

"He operates in a complex in Guadalajara," Cole took over. "Which is guarded by roving patrols totaling a force of thirty armed men."

"We waiting for night or are we hitting it in the daylight?" asked Jace.

"We need to go in before nightfall, that's when a troop of reinforcements to amp up security," answered Cole.

"It's not the most desirable method but Gutierrez is the best lead we have," stepped in Barrera. "And with the deaths of your agents, Vargas will likely change all current methods of operations."

We're going to hit a compound in broad daylight in cartel territory, what could go wrong?

Everyone geared up, Echo Team was dressed in Mexican Federal Police and Military uniforms. They took sedans with tinted windows to the target building in hopes of avoiding suspicion. Jace watched the people as they made the trip, he may have lost his mother and sister to cartel violence but these people had to live with it every day.

Once they made it to their objective area they went the rest of the way on foot, bystanders banged on bucket drums to alert the Sicarios in the area of their presence, some even pulled out cell phones. They used an explosive charge to breach the gate, launching 9-Bangers over the walls. Once inside Jace took an element to the sub-levels in search of Gutierrez. Reese and Torres took another to the west end and their indigenous counterparts took the rest.

They were met with heavy machinegun fire, Miller through a crash grenade, allowing Jace to take out the sentry. They came across a heavily fortified door, they used a water charge to blast it back. What they saw inside wasn't the HVT, but a sight worse than most of what they've seen in years.

"Dear God," Jace was taken aback at the sight of a dozen hostages chained to the walls, some he had hooks through their shoulders stringing them up like punching bags. By the looks of them, that's likely what they were being used for. "All elements, I have roughly twelve critically injured civilians in the basement level. We need help getting them out."

Barrera answered.

"Loud and Clear Echo One, we see clearly from the helmet cameras. An armed convoy will meet you on the south end, there's a fleet of cartel soldiers coming your way from the north with a Narco Tank."

"Echo Two to Echo One, we have eyes on the HVT. What's the call?"

"Let your Mexican counterparts chase him, we need help down here."

Back in the JOC, Officer Cole was not pleased with Julian's decision.

"Why isn't he going after Gutierrez?!" asked Erin. "He's in their sights!"

"Julian is the field commander," replied Sharon Patterson. "It's his call."

"They have a lot of civilian casualties who need immediate medical aid," added Kara.

"Those people aren't the objective!"

"No," stepped in Barrera, recognizing the faces from Missing Persons alerts. "But they've been missing for months, years even, some of them were witnesses to cartel hits, others had protested their expansion into their neighborhoods."

Echo Team and their counterparts took the casualties to the vehicles, providing medical aid as they went along. Everyone was accounted for, they lost the HVT in the chase after getting cut off by incoming Sicarios.

They sped off, unfortunately, the Narco Tank was also on their tail. With civilians in the area, they couldn't use grenades or the M72 in the trunk. They concentrated all fire onto the driver's side, which thankfully caused him to ver off course and crash into the technical next to it. Throughout the ride, Jace cradled two injured kids, a boy and a girl both roughly the same age as his daughters. They had been beaten, cut across their arms and faces, and severely starved and dehydrated.

They got to the base without further complications, the JOC had set up an improvised ICU to tend to the injured. Afterward, they would be escorted to a hospital.

However, this wasn't good enough for Cole.

"You lost the HVT?!"

"I made a judgment call," shot back Jace. "We were on a clock the moment we had our boots on the ground."

"Gutierrez was the objective!"

"TELL THAT TO THEM!" shouted Julian, pointing to the people they saved.

The SEAL Sniper stormed off to the rooftop, where he had a punching bag set up. He pounded on it until the sunset. As he removed his gloves and hand wraps Jace could feel the bruising on his knuckles. It was a miracle that his hands were still functioning perfectly, aside from his boxing habit, he had been shot in the right hand and had both arms broken throughout his career.

After eating and showering he found Kara and Sharon outside his bunk.

"How are you holding up?" asked the former.

"Keep in mind that we've both known you long enough to know when you're lying," stated the latter.

"I hadn't seen anything like the sight in that basement since my first deployment to Afghanistan," said Jace. "I've seen plenty since but that was something the Taliban could've done."

"This is your first long-term deployment since Paraguay," said Kara. "You're allowed to have a response to things like that."

"If you're worried that I'm compromised, don't," replied Julian. "What I saw only makes me want to hang Vargas even more."

The two female federal agents knew that was all they were going to get out of him, so they left letting him get ready to sleep. Before Julian got ready for bed Torres visited him.

"If you have a problem with my decision," said Jace, his tone letting the other man know that he was firm on his choice on the subject. "Take it up with Rorke."

"No, man," replied the undercover specialist. "It was a good call, we'll get more leads. Just thought you should know that I'm with you."

"Thanks, glad to have you on my six," said Jace.

Torres left and Julian sat back and let his tiredness take over.