Not sure where this should go. It has customs and dioramas, but if a mod find a better place then pleae move...
3rd July, 2009 - The Ministry of Defence, London, UK
Sir Paul Thaddick, the Defence Minister, was furious. The 24 hour news channels were playing images of the failed Spearhead anti-terrorist assault over and over again, much to the huge embarrassment of Her Majesty’s Government. The Prime Minister himself had just phoned Thaddick to demand an immediate and satisfactory conclusion to the incident, without any further loss of life. It was clear that Thaddick’s job was on the line. Thaddick had felt the humiliation personally – he had set up the UK Special Forces group ‘Spearhead’ after Action Force had been disbanded 12 months earlier. Their failure to rescue the hostages onboard the cruise ship Neptuno had placed the hostages, and his career, in immediate jeopardy, and time was running out for both. Thaddick needed an answer - he needed a team of specialists that could bring the siege to an immediate and 'clean' end. There was only one name on Thaddick's list - David R. Faireborn - Codename: Flint.
Flint looked with horror at the images being shown on a huge screen Thaddick’s room. He could see the video of the Spearhead assault team attacking the Neptuno. Flint had counted three major errors in the operation so far, and they hadn’t even mounted the ship yet. He listened as Thaddick started his briefing…
"At 2200 hours yesterday the Neptuno was stormed by what was thought to be a five man terrorist team. They quickly subdued the crew and took them and the passengers hostage. At 0340 hours today we sent in the Spearhead team to retake the ship. Four Spearhead operatives and three hostages were killed in the operation and the whole disaster was played out on national TV via the media. Spearhead's intelligence was wrong - there were ten terrorists. They are from the Lionhearts, a far right group whose motto is 'Britain for the British'. They haven't mounted a terror attack at this level before, and frankly we are surprised by the level of skill and planning involved. Things have been quiet in Europe since Action Force was disbanded last year, but now we need a temporary reinstatement of Action Force to bring this situation to an immediate end."
Flint’s face was grim – he realized that Spearhead had been out of their depth. He had been vocal about the British Government’s decision to request a disbandment of Action Force last year. Whilst it was true that the threat from Cobra had been very much reduced, in Europe at least, he was always aware that some crackpot organization would be looking to fill the vacuum. He picked up his briefing papers and files and was about to leave to go to the old Action Force base in Whitehall. He turned to Thaddick…
‘You should have got me involved earlier,’ snapped Flint.
‘We didn’t think we needed you,’ explained Thaddick, his voice heavy with regret. ‘Or Action Force. We were wrong.’
Recruiting Action Force operatives for the Neptuno operation was tricky, especially given the very tight timescale Flint was forced to work to, but he had managed to gather Action Force operatives who were working in the UK and Western Europe. Lady Jaye had been assigned to debriefing the three Spearhead operatives who had managed to escape the Neptuno alive, whilst Boffin and Mainframe had been examining the Neptuno schematics in full. Flint then gathered his team in the main briefing area and started to discuss the assault plan. It had been over a year since Flint had briefed his team, but it felt like yesterday. Everyone was ready and in place, aware of the pressure to get this right, but confident in their ability to get the job done.
Life had been difficult for Arthur Banks. His father was alcoholic, and the only contact he ever seemed to have with his father ended up with him getting knocked about. He had hated school and left without any qualifications. Alcohol and drugs were soon destroying his life, but one day someone showed interest in Arthur, and as far as he could recall it was the first time anyone had done so. The man introduced Arthur to the Lionhearts. They taught him to turn his hurt to fight injustice and promote ‘the cause’. They promised him that life would improve for everyone in Britain if they cleared out the people they thought shouldn’t even be there. The gun in Arthur’s hands weighed heavy as he guarded the crying hostages. He’d been told that this was the path to a better future, but as he looked at the frightened people in front of him, scared to even look him in the eyes, he couldn’t see how he was any different from his own father…
Within an hour of the briefing a small Action Force team were speeding towards the Neptuno in an assault boat. Flint had arranged for a 15 minute delay on the live feeds the media helicopters were broadcasting. Shipwreck was leading the team, alongside Lowlight, Quick Kick, Torpedo and Mainframe. It was planned that Shipwreck would infiltrate the engine room of the cruise ship whilst Lowlight, Quick Kick and Torpedo would make a direct assault on the terrorists holding the hostages. As they approached the Neptuno, Mainframe triggered the 'Ghost-Jammer' program he had developed. The Ghost-Jammer was an experimental program that would scan and record the vocal patterns of the terrorist communications and then jam the real communications and synthesise false ones, thus ensuring that no alarm was raised. On Lowlight’s signal, Mainframe would then trigger a sonic pulse through the terrorist comms network to immediately disorientate them. The patrol boat reached the side of the Neptuno and the assault team started to scale the side of the ship.
Shipwreck vaulted over the top of the ship's hull and found cover immediately. He saw two Lionheart terrorists patrolling the bow edging closer to his position, unaware that he was hiding. Shipwreck stepped out of cover and fired two silenced rounds into the terrorist's chests. He dragged their bodies behind cover and moved towards the engine room.
Low light, Quick Kick and Torpedo climbed onto the main deck and surveyed the ship. A three-man Lionheart patrol was making their way along the port walkway, looking for signs of any trouble. Night had managed to keep the assault boat’s location hidden so far, but if its silhouette was seen against the glistening water, then the whole mission could end up compromised. Quick Kick swung down towards two of the terrorists knocking them out cold. Lowlight pulled his trigger sending two rounds into the third terrorist who then dropped to the floor. The Action Force team split up to make their way towards the hostage locations. The terrorists had moved the hostages into two areas – the ship’s ballroom and the ship’s restaurant. There were two terrorists in the main ballroom and Quick Kick had positioned himself outside of it. He had worked out the terrorist locations in the room and was ready to launch his attack. Outside the restaurant Lowlight and Torpedo were in location. The Ghost-Jammer had been keeping reassuring ‘communications’ going from the dead terrorists to the men guarding the hostages. Lowlight signalled to Mainframe that they were ready. Mainframe triggered the sonic pulse causing the terrorists to writhe around in pain.
Quick Kick launched himself into the ballroom, smacking the first terrorist with his nunchucks, knocking him down, then throwing the second terrorist violently against a wall, knocking him unconscious. The hostages appeared unharmed.
Shipwreck had made it to the engine room as the sonic pulse was triggered. He had managed to subdue one terrorist, but the second had grappled him to the ground. The terrorist was strong as was squeezing Shipwreck’s windpipe. Shipwreck grabbed a knife from the man’s belt and stabbed him between the shoulder blades. The man arched back in pain allowing Shipwreck to silence him. He was about to release a sigh of relief when he realized that the operation had become a lot more complicated…
Arthur Banks was holding a gun in his hands and he was looking at the hostages gathered in the restaurant. The weapon was getting heavier with each minute that passed as Arthur doubted what he was doing here at all. A loud scream pierced his eardrums and he dropped to the floor. When he looked up he could see a man standing above him, dressed in black with red goggles, before the butt of the man’s gun made everything turn black. Life had been unfair to Arthur Banks and he had fallen in with a bad crowd. It didn’t matter to Lowlight – all he wanted was the terrorist threat to be nullified cleanly. Shipwreck told the Action Force team to come immediately to the engine room – the operation was much more complicated than they thought – there was a bomb wired into the ship’s navigation systems.
Flint listened to the live feed from the Neptuno. Shipwreck reported that four terrorists had been killed and six had been subdued. There were no hostage casualties, but there had been another set back. The Neptuno engine room had been wired up to a bomb with the controls locked on a path towards the docks at Liverpool. It was at most an hour away, but Shipwreck feared the bomb would explode if the ship altered course. Mainframe had examined it and had become even more concerned. Intel found on the terrorists suggested that this was a conventional bomb, but Mainframe was sure it contained some nuclear material. It was a dirty bomb and it was locked on course to Liverpool…
Mainframe examined the bomb closely. The bomb had been wired into the GPS navigation of the cruise ship, and he had 53 minutes to find a way of defusing the bomb. He detected that the bomb was transmitting short burst communications to a location in the UK mainland. He managed to triangulate the location of the transmissions.
.
