Touchstone
01-25-2007, 09:32 AM
Okay, okay, now, I know my first attempt ended poorly, *VERY damn poorly according to Prak.* And you know what? Prak had a VERY good point, script based is FAR too simple, and the first one didn't explain anywhere near as much as it should have. Thus, I'm posting a completely redone version of Ground Zero 1 here, non-script based, so now it won't be pain to the eyes anymore, lol. Hope you guys like the new job done. *Also, all dialect has been editted. All dialogue in the story has been revised and editted completely. ;)
Enjoy.
Ground Zero 1: Operation Colares
Chapter One: The Threat.
January 17th, 1993, it had been exactly two years after the gulf war had ended, the United States had fallen under peace once more. Now, exactly two years later, the U.S. was being threatened once more, this time, the treat was more real now then it ever was in the Gulf War, this time the threat had reached near American soil, making no one safe. President Gordon had done his best to keep the events occurring under wraps, but the U.S. was indeed subjected to the possible threat of a nuclear strike, and he could no longer take any chances, so President Gordon had placed the entire country under Security Alert Red.
It was time to address the American people of what was truly occurring, the time had come to prepare the American people for any possible nuclear strike, so President Gordon assigned his military advisor and personal friend, Commander Preston Jay Styles in charge of addressing the events to the media. Styles was a very calm, cool, and collected individual, he knew that assuring the press that President Gordon had everything under control would put the nation at ease. So Styles approached the podium on the stage of city hall, and began to tell them of what this new terrorist threat truly was.
“I would like to thank each and every single one of you for attending this conference, I understand how patient most of you have been, and for your patience I thank you. I would also like to apologize on behalf of President Gordon for his missing at this conference. He wanted truly to attend, but unfortunately, he is dealing with this crisis on the sidelines as we speak,” said Styles, as he remained calm under the hundreds of eyes watching him, and monitoring him at the conference. He then continued to address the media and said, “As I’m sure all of you are aware of, the president has ordered a Security Alert Red on the nation, and that is because at approximately 4:15pm of January 10th, an unknown terrorist unit had hijacked one American made nuclear ICBM during its’ transfer to a dismantling facility off the coast of Central America. He has placed this alert to keep this nation prepared for any chance of a nuclear strike on American soil, but rest assured, rest assured, we will put a stop to these terrorists before they even get a chance to strike.”
Once Styles had said that, the media had gone all over him, bombarding him with obvious questions.
“Commander Styles, is it true that President Gordon’s administration was hesitant on placing the nation on alert?”
“Commander Styles, is there a reason the President waited a week to warn the country?”
“Does the President even know where these terrorists are residing?”
More and more, the media jumped on the opportunity to strike at Styles like a lion on a wounded antelope. Still, Styles remained calm, and simply responded with, “I can assure you, the President had very good reason to wait a week to inform the nation of the true threat, unfortunately I do not have sufficient rights to share those reasons with you at the moment. As for the location of the terrorists, several militant forces allied with our countries military forces spotted them transferring the ICBM dismantled in several massive trucks to a tanker which had traveled all the way to a small island off the coast of Brazil, known as Colares.”
”Does President Gordon plan on doing anything about it anytime soon, or will he attempt to negotiate with the terrorists?”
”As always, President Gordon’s first priority is to retain the safety of the American people, thus he will be attempting to negotiate with the terrorists in exchange for bringing the nuclear ICBM back to the U.S. But we are more then prepared to use force, and have several units prepared to do so should it reach that point. I’m afraid I can answer no more questions at this time, and must take my leave, thank you, and good night.”
“Commander Styles. Commander Styles!!”
The media continued to call his name as the eager newsmen and photographers followed him outside Washington D.C. City Hall, surrounding him, continuing with the constant continued question, “What does the President intend to do about this crisis?!” Styles simply walked past them, knowing he’d said all that was needed to be said in the conference hall and headed straight for a black stretch limo. As he entered, the flashing of dozens of cameras and the sounds of more and more questions were heard outside the limo, but Styles simply drove away.
Inside the limo were two other government officials. The first being Joseph Rhoemer, a 36 year old marine lieutenant, and Jonathan Renalds, a 30 year old communications expert between the terrorists and the White House. Once Styles looked back and saw that the press was gone, he was once again at ease.
“Oh dear God, the media sure is persistent now these days, aren’t they?”
Rhoemer simply nodded as Renalds responded by saying, “You know the media, they’ll do anything to get a good story.” After his sarcastic remark however, Renalds handed Styles a large folder, labeled “Operation Colares.” Styles was intrigued. “So, is this what I think it is?” said Styles with a very concerned and interested expression on his face. Renalds nodded while Rhoemer had told Styles of the Presidents decision on the crisis at hand.
”Negotiations didn’t go as well as we had hoped, it’s come down to this. We will be deploying the best Marine unit we could set up in approximately two hours.” Styles sighed as he continued to just read the files. However, upon reading the files, and the names of the marines they’d be deploying to the Brazilian Island, one name instantly caught Styles’ eyes, and that name was Dane Callaway.
“Hold up, we’re sending Callaway on this mission?” Said Styles, sounding now almost excited at the thought. Rhoemer responded with, “Yes, Dane Callaway, age 33, former Navy SEAL, and military sergeant. You both remember him, right? He and I were in training together when you were still our commander, remember Preston?”
”Yes, of course I remember, he was my best soldier...hahaha, I can’t believe we’re sending him on this island though. He’ll definitely make this job a bit easier.” Said Styles as he began to smirk reminiscing on the past, remembering the training Dane had endured, and how he never gave up as a young man. He then continued by saying, “What’s this? It says under unit, ‘Phoenix,’ what’s that about?” Renalds then jumped in the discussion by saying, “Oh, well, he’s going to be a member of the Phoenix unit.”
”Yes, so I gathered, what is the Phoenix Unit?”
“It’s only the name chosen for his unit, since it’s an independent mission. There’s no Alpha or Beta team on this one. The unit will consist of twelve soldiers, and those soldiers are to infiltrate the island, and disarm the terrorists.”
“Interesting...in all my time as a military commander, I’ve yet to see any independent units deployed on missions like this. Looks like there’s a first for everything I guess, haha.”
“Yes. President Gordon said the same thing, and each soldier in the unit will be referred to by their code name. Now normally, we follow basic recon code names like Hotshot, Killjoy, Wildfire, and so on, but since it’s not a joint mission, we decided to go with code names that would match the unit well. Such as Falcon, Hawk, Condor, Eagle, Blue jay, etc. You get the idea.”
Styles just laughed at the names, and continued reading the files. Rhoemer and Renalds however, were reflecting on what had occurred during negotiations, and reflected on the actions taken with horror. The terrorist leader behind this attack appeared to be American to them, and even worse, a former soldier at that. He had to have had help in order to hijack the ICBM inside. Someone had to have been keeping him very well informed on the transferring of the nuke. But still, the question remained, what were his intentions, who has been feeding him the intel needed to steal the warhead, and does he truly intend to fire a nuclear warhead into American soil?
Enjoy.
Ground Zero 1: Operation Colares
Chapter One: The Threat.
January 17th, 1993, it had been exactly two years after the gulf war had ended, the United States had fallen under peace once more. Now, exactly two years later, the U.S. was being threatened once more, this time, the treat was more real now then it ever was in the Gulf War, this time the threat had reached near American soil, making no one safe. President Gordon had done his best to keep the events occurring under wraps, but the U.S. was indeed subjected to the possible threat of a nuclear strike, and he could no longer take any chances, so President Gordon had placed the entire country under Security Alert Red.
It was time to address the American people of what was truly occurring, the time had come to prepare the American people for any possible nuclear strike, so President Gordon assigned his military advisor and personal friend, Commander Preston Jay Styles in charge of addressing the events to the media. Styles was a very calm, cool, and collected individual, he knew that assuring the press that President Gordon had everything under control would put the nation at ease. So Styles approached the podium on the stage of city hall, and began to tell them of what this new terrorist threat truly was.
“I would like to thank each and every single one of you for attending this conference, I understand how patient most of you have been, and for your patience I thank you. I would also like to apologize on behalf of President Gordon for his missing at this conference. He wanted truly to attend, but unfortunately, he is dealing with this crisis on the sidelines as we speak,” said Styles, as he remained calm under the hundreds of eyes watching him, and monitoring him at the conference. He then continued to address the media and said, “As I’m sure all of you are aware of, the president has ordered a Security Alert Red on the nation, and that is because at approximately 4:15pm of January 10th, an unknown terrorist unit had hijacked one American made nuclear ICBM during its’ transfer to a dismantling facility off the coast of Central America. He has placed this alert to keep this nation prepared for any chance of a nuclear strike on American soil, but rest assured, rest assured, we will put a stop to these terrorists before they even get a chance to strike.”
Once Styles had said that, the media had gone all over him, bombarding him with obvious questions.
“Commander Styles, is it true that President Gordon’s administration was hesitant on placing the nation on alert?”
“Commander Styles, is there a reason the President waited a week to warn the country?”
“Does the President even know where these terrorists are residing?”
More and more, the media jumped on the opportunity to strike at Styles like a lion on a wounded antelope. Still, Styles remained calm, and simply responded with, “I can assure you, the President had very good reason to wait a week to inform the nation of the true threat, unfortunately I do not have sufficient rights to share those reasons with you at the moment. As for the location of the terrorists, several militant forces allied with our countries military forces spotted them transferring the ICBM dismantled in several massive trucks to a tanker which had traveled all the way to a small island off the coast of Brazil, known as Colares.”
”Does President Gordon plan on doing anything about it anytime soon, or will he attempt to negotiate with the terrorists?”
”As always, President Gordon’s first priority is to retain the safety of the American people, thus he will be attempting to negotiate with the terrorists in exchange for bringing the nuclear ICBM back to the U.S. But we are more then prepared to use force, and have several units prepared to do so should it reach that point. I’m afraid I can answer no more questions at this time, and must take my leave, thank you, and good night.”
“Commander Styles. Commander Styles!!”
The media continued to call his name as the eager newsmen and photographers followed him outside Washington D.C. City Hall, surrounding him, continuing with the constant continued question, “What does the President intend to do about this crisis?!” Styles simply walked past them, knowing he’d said all that was needed to be said in the conference hall and headed straight for a black stretch limo. As he entered, the flashing of dozens of cameras and the sounds of more and more questions were heard outside the limo, but Styles simply drove away.
Inside the limo were two other government officials. The first being Joseph Rhoemer, a 36 year old marine lieutenant, and Jonathan Renalds, a 30 year old communications expert between the terrorists and the White House. Once Styles looked back and saw that the press was gone, he was once again at ease.
“Oh dear God, the media sure is persistent now these days, aren’t they?”
Rhoemer simply nodded as Renalds responded by saying, “You know the media, they’ll do anything to get a good story.” After his sarcastic remark however, Renalds handed Styles a large folder, labeled “Operation Colares.” Styles was intrigued. “So, is this what I think it is?” said Styles with a very concerned and interested expression on his face. Renalds nodded while Rhoemer had told Styles of the Presidents decision on the crisis at hand.
”Negotiations didn’t go as well as we had hoped, it’s come down to this. We will be deploying the best Marine unit we could set up in approximately two hours.” Styles sighed as he continued to just read the files. However, upon reading the files, and the names of the marines they’d be deploying to the Brazilian Island, one name instantly caught Styles’ eyes, and that name was Dane Callaway.
“Hold up, we’re sending Callaway on this mission?” Said Styles, sounding now almost excited at the thought. Rhoemer responded with, “Yes, Dane Callaway, age 33, former Navy SEAL, and military sergeant. You both remember him, right? He and I were in training together when you were still our commander, remember Preston?”
”Yes, of course I remember, he was my best soldier...hahaha, I can’t believe we’re sending him on this island though. He’ll definitely make this job a bit easier.” Said Styles as he began to smirk reminiscing on the past, remembering the training Dane had endured, and how he never gave up as a young man. He then continued by saying, “What’s this? It says under unit, ‘Phoenix,’ what’s that about?” Renalds then jumped in the discussion by saying, “Oh, well, he’s going to be a member of the Phoenix unit.”
”Yes, so I gathered, what is the Phoenix Unit?”
“It’s only the name chosen for his unit, since it’s an independent mission. There’s no Alpha or Beta team on this one. The unit will consist of twelve soldiers, and those soldiers are to infiltrate the island, and disarm the terrorists.”
“Interesting...in all my time as a military commander, I’ve yet to see any independent units deployed on missions like this. Looks like there’s a first for everything I guess, haha.”
“Yes. President Gordon said the same thing, and each soldier in the unit will be referred to by their code name. Now normally, we follow basic recon code names like Hotshot, Killjoy, Wildfire, and so on, but since it’s not a joint mission, we decided to go with code names that would match the unit well. Such as Falcon, Hawk, Condor, Eagle, Blue jay, etc. You get the idea.”
Styles just laughed at the names, and continued reading the files. Rhoemer and Renalds however, were reflecting on what had occurred during negotiations, and reflected on the actions taken with horror. The terrorist leader behind this attack appeared to be American to them, and even worse, a former soldier at that. He had to have had help in order to hijack the ICBM inside. Someone had to have been keeping him very well informed on the transferring of the nuke. But still, the question remained, what were his intentions, who has been feeding him the intel needed to steal the warhead, and does he truly intend to fire a nuclear warhead into American soil?