Late February, 2012: Haarold and Isaac enjoyed well deserved reprieve from the raid and successful capture of Jalal Al'Saratti, a former Hussein informant, while Vicktor recovered from his life-threatening injuries at a local military hospital. Over the weeks that followed, Haarold occupied himself with custom weapon-smith work for SecuriCorp and refining various skills he used during the Warehouse Raid. Isaac spent a considerable amount of time at the military hospital under advanced instruction for medicine.
(Jeremy's character, Liam Sweeny, joined the party during a between session operation and was found to be a competent addition to the group.) Interested in finding better transportation around town than the cube truck obtained during the Warehouse Raid, Isaac and Haarold visited a local "fixer", Shane, another employee of SecuriCorp. He was a true fixer and was able to procure a custom 4x4 Ford V10 van for $30,000, a steal based on the $54,000 sticker price. Of course, no VIN could be found, but in this area, it probably wouldn't be scrutinized. The men risk it, and purchase the van.
Shane gifted them with a high quality bottle of Vodka for Vicktor. Roark calls at 08:30 for an appointment at his office at SecuriCorp. At 09:30, Liam, Vicktor, Isaac and Haarold arrived to find that some great Intel was found from the Hotel Raid procurement of the laptop. We have a new High Value Target (HVT), instrumental in IED training for the insurgence. The right side of his face was scarred with burns, with reports of a missing ear and other scarring. They've narrowed down his possible locations to Faluja, more likley of the two, and Tikrit. It would be similar to the Warehouse raid, where the HVT frequents a fortified location. The payout alive would be $200,000 to the team that extracts him. $50,000 dead. There are two other teams meeting with SecuriCorp later that day, competition to our own team.
Roark indicates that we can contract a Conquest for $5,000 per mission, which the team agrees to; the new van has no real armor to speak of. The contract was effective immediately upon leaving the building, with approximately a 90 minute lead on the other teams being briefed. Vicktor's evaluation of the information given points the team to Faluja.
In the final checkpoint before entering Faluja, we were held up by a First Lieutenant to "thoroughly check our paperwork". Vicktor attempted to bully the officer into letting us through worried that he's trying to delay for another team. Dropping SecuriCorp's name to get through did not work as a tactic. Isaac was able to flex his rank surreptitiously, keeping the Lt. from revealing it to the group.
The team enters on the Old Bridge, and the city is a "ghost town". Liam carefully picks his way through the street litter when Haarold notices a drain culvert grate that appears to have been tampered with. He called, "Stop!" He noticed a trip-wire boobie-trap running across the road from the culvert to the wall of a building. Isaac noticed an aggressor running from a building to the potential IED location with rifle in hand and is able to take a shot, clipping him in the left leg. Vicktor hit an aggressor in a Toyota HiLux with a recoil-less rifle, but didn't seem to phase him. Another HiLux sandwiched us in place.
Liam gasses in reverse, plows through the HiLux behind the team, spins out of control but they end up around the corner and with cover. The engine stalled, while an RPG explodes behind the vehicle. A group of four aggressors exit an alley and fire upon the vehicle. The two firing RPGs fail to hit any target, one of the aggressors fires an AK47 to the vehicle, and another has a MALF blow up in his face.
The second HiLux with another .50 cal recoil-less rifle tears through the rear of the vehicle, hitting Vicktor, once again and Isaac took a hit to the helmet. Liam accelerated in reverse to pull the same maneuver to ram into and through the aggressor. The Conquest took some (2 pts) armor damage from the two collisions and .50 cal, but was still running clear.
(OOC: The session ended here in interest of us getting real life sleep.)
