Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy
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I Had Rather Have A Plain, Russet-Coated Captain That knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else. --Oliver Cromwell
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Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundless-ness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate. --Sun Tzu
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Minimal consumption--use the least amount of combat resources sufficient to accomplish the objective. --Colonel Qiao Liang and Colonel Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare
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PERSONNEL LIST
Ghosts
Operation War Wraith
Alpha Team
Captain Scott Mitchell
Master Sergeant Jose "Joe" Ramirez
Sergeant First Class Paul Smith
Sergeant First Class Alex Nolan
Bravo Team
Master Sergeant Matt Beasley
Sergeant First Class Bo Jenkins
Staff Sergeant John Hume
Sergeant Marcus Brown
Charlie Team
Sergeant Alicia Diaz
Ghost Command
Lieutenant Colonel Harold "Buzz" Gordon
Major Susan Grey, D CO. 1st BN. 5th SFG
General Joshua Keating, Commander of USSOCOM
Dr. Gail Gorbatova, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Spring Tigers
Operation Pouncing Dragon
Major-General Chen Yi (Target Alpha)
Colonel Xu Dingfa (Target Bravo)
Vice Admiral Cai Ming (Target Charlie)
Major-General Wu Hui (Target Delta)
Deputy Director Wang Ya, CMC Political Department
Captain Fang Zhi
USS Montana Control Team
Commanding Officer Captain Kenneth Gummerson
Lieutenant Commander Sands, Executive Officer
Master Chief Suallo, Chief of the Boat
SEAL Chief Tanner
SEAL Chief Phillips
Lieutenant Jeff Moch, Predator Support
Lieutenant Justin Schumaker, Predator Support
Chapter One.
BASILAN ISLAND
SULU ARCHIPELAGO, SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES
AUGUST, 2002
Master Sergeant Scott Mitchell blinked at the sweat in his eyes and pushed on through the rubber plants, their leathery leaves brushing against his boonie hat and cheek. Ahead lay a slight clearing in the otherwise dense, twilit jungle, and Mitchell used his M4A1's barrel to lift a thin branch as he hunkered down at the edge.
Captain Victor Foyte, his detachment commander, moved ahead beside an uneven stretch of wilting palm fronds still dripping from a storm that had rolled in several hours ago. "Ricochet, this is Road Warrior 06," the captain whispered into his radio. "Think I see something. And I hear some buzzing, like flies. Let's check it out, over."
"Right with you, Boss," answered Mitchell.
Although Foyte outranked him, Mitchell was the team sergeant, responsible for fighting all twelve members of Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 574. The captain and warrant officer coordinated with the twelve-man Filipino and Taiwanese teams they'd been cross-training with for the past two weeks.
Mitchell started forward as up to his right a snake coiled around an overhanging limb, its tongue fluttering. Special Forces operators ate bad guys for breakfast and snakes for supper; consequently, they weren't unnerved by either. Nevertheless, Mitchell grimaced and got out of there to join the captain.
Barely three steps later, a whoosh of musty air, a rustle of leaves, and the sharp crack of a rope sent lightning bolts through his gut. He looked up and gasped.
The captain had been moving toward a pole stuck in the ground. Atop that pole was a human head with long, brown hair flowing around it.
A twenty-one-year-old American missionary had recently been captured by Abu Sayyaf, the local pseudo-Islamist terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda. Military and police forces had been combing the island, looking for her and for Abu Sayyaf's stronghold, hidden somewhere deep in the mountainous interior.
It seemed the captain had found the missing woman--and much more. A rope had snapped taut around one of his ankles, and now he was being hurled three meters into the air, screaming, "Ambush!"
Mitchell was about to get on the radio when the captain swung forward, a human pendulum heading straight for a tree impaled by rows of razor-sharp punjistakes now revealed as fronds strung up by more ropes fell away--all part of the carefully designed booby trap.
Captain Victor Foyte was only twenty-four years old, and in the next breath he slammed back-first into the punjistakes, the foot-long pieces of sharpened wood driving into his arms, neck, and torso.
The team had been operating light, forgoing body armor in the rainy, hundred-plus-degree jungle. Foyte shrieked and gurgled as the stakes grew slick with his blood.
Chief Warrant Officer 02 James Alvarado, who'd been positioned about a dozen meters behind them, burst forward crying, "Captain!" Alvarado cut loose multiple rounds below the tree where Foyte now hung, inverted and bleeding to death.
Again, Mitchell keyed his mike, ready to issue orders, but Alvarado's gunfire cut him off.
This was Mitchell's first live mission as a Special Forces operator. He was an experienced infantryman and team leader from an Opposing Force (OPFOR) recon unit at Fort Irwin. He already had an impressive resume and was hoping to make a name for himself in the Special Forces community--yet in a flash, he'd already lost his first CO.
A strange thumping noise sounded as Alvarado ceased fire and advanced into the clearing. The warrant suddenly clutched his neck, where a tiny dart extended from between his fingers. He screamed as he tugged it out.
Mitchell dropped onto his gut as more thumping sounded behind them. Alvarado wobbled forward then crumpled to the ground, poisoned and probably dead.
The team was, it seemed, being attacked by loinclothed savages whose traps and blowguns had ironically overpowered the men with their thunder sticks.
"Mitchell?" called the captain, his voice burred by the agony, his face now drenched in blood. "Mitch . . . ell?"
Unable to stare at Foyte any longer, Mitchell finally got on the radio. "This is Ricochet. Ambush! Ambush! The captain and warrant are down!"
Before he could continue, the terrorists somewhere out there, crouching in the wet foliage, revealed they were not the loinclothed savages of Mitchell's imagination but were, in fact, ruthless and modern killers.
So much automatic weapons fire blasted through the clearing that it sounded as though a thousand men with machetes were cutting apart the trees and fronds. Rounds from AK-47s and machine guns popped and boomed, wood splintered, and birds squawked and flew off as holes appeared in the leaves, the debris tumbling down on Mitchell as he rose to his elbows and spied his first pair of muzzle flashes.