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Chapter 04: The Hunting Mission

'Damn it!'

Guren mentally screamed as he stood in his bedroom in front of the window while staring at the paper in his grasp. A white envelope, torn open, lay at his feet. His hands trembled as he continued to read what was written on the folded paper. With his free hand he rubbed his forehead and backed up to sit on the bed made with a burgundy comforter and lots of pillows. Then he dragged his hand down over his face. With all the problems he had been facing in planning his wedding, this was last thing he needed or wanted.

He had found the envelope taped to the front door when he had returned from his morning jog. It had a military stamp. When he reached the door, he yanked it off and shoved it into the pocket of his military gray sweatpants. Turning the nob, he opened the door and stepped inside, yawning in exhaustion. Today's jog took longer than normal. Way longer. So yeah, he was tired. Plus the hot sweaty sex last night and waking up early to help Beni with her morning sickness did not help. Letting out the biggest yawn yet, he stepped into kitchen and bumped into his live-in fiancé. She was dressed and getting something to before heading for work. She was one of only three employees at a fine (and really expensive) clothing store. Having wolfed down her food, she gave Guren a quick peck on the lips and rushed out the door. Guren immediately went upstairs to change. When he heard the Beni's roadster pull out of the driveway, he slipped his hand into his pocket and retracted the envelope. It did not take him long to tear it open.

Inside were orders. Guren already knew that over half the high ranking commanders had escaped persecution right as the war ended. All the intelligence agencies of the countries that were involved in the war had finally located them. He, his team, and a lot of soldiers were to report to base at 1300 hours. He looked at his watch. It was five to eight. Letting out a frustrated groan, the former Bravenwolf closed the note and placed it on the night table, then stood up.

"I'm getting a headache," he grumbled to himself as he rubbed his temples.

He grabbed some fresh clothes and headed for the shower.

A half-hour later, he stepped out of the bathroom fully dressed in military cargo pants and a white shirt that seemed a little tight on him. Some water was still dripping from his hair as he made his way out of the bedroom. He entered his old room which was now his daughter's and saw that she was awake and trying to grab the pieces of the mobile. Guren smiled then walked to the pink and red crib. When he reached it he lifted Pepper out of it causing her to giggle.

"Good Morning Pepper," Guren cooed.

"Dada!" the little girl said then giggled even harder.

Guren changed her diaper then put her into a fresh set of clothes. He dressed her up in bright red denim overalls, a pink shirt with a cartoonish wolf, and shoes. Once he was finished he took her downstairs for breakfast. He sat her on the highchair and poured some oat cereal onto the tray. While Pepper ate, Guren popped to waffles into the toaster and pushed the leaver down. After a few minutes, the waffles were done and he grabbed them and ate them. When he was done, Guren started preparing bag for Pepper, and filled it with diapers, two Sippy cups, a bottle, some formula powder, baby wipes, baby powder and oil, some snack, and some toys.

"Alright," Guren muttered picking his daughter from the highchair. "Let's go to your mommy."

He adjusted the girl in his arms and slung the bag over his shoulder. He proceeded to lock the back and front doors and head for the garage. Once Pepper was in her booster seat, he went back to make sure that Fiona and Nina had enough food and water for the next few hours. He quickly ran upstairs and grabbed his military gear then headed back to the car and threw it into the truck. Twenty minutes later, he made to the store where Beni works.

After leaving Pepper with Beni and with an explanation (and getting checked out by Beni's jealous coworker), he headed toward the base. He then drove across town and it took almost a half-hour to get to the base. When he entered the parking lot, he spotted half his unit ahead of him. Some had just come in and others were waiting by their cars for the rest of the team.

Everyone was in their military gear except Bat. Bat, the youngest member of the Zoo, was wearing jeans, sneakers and a plain orange t-shirt. He must have been busy before now to be dressed like that. Apparently, his father dropped him off because Guren noticed Bat's father's pickup truck leaving the base. When Guren found a spot next to Hyena, he saw a green SUV pull up and from the passenger side out stepped Falcon, being dropped off by her husband.

"Any of you have a clue of why we're here?" Falcon asked dropping her bag as the SUV pulled away.

"No, not really," Guren answered as he climbed out of his car. "I just got a letter this morning."

"Same here," the other soldiers said.

"So, Wolf," Falcon turned to the unit's leader. "Any luck finding a location for your wedding?"

Guren shook his head. "Every location we've seen just didn't feel right." He leaned against his car and turned his head to face the ocean through the Navy shipyard full of ships. Then he realized something as his eyes widened. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Falcon asked almost in shock.

Guren pointed at the ship yard. "That decommissioned aircraft carrier is the perfect location for my wedding!"

"You sure about that?" Coyote, a 26-year-old man with a blonde flat top and wearing a pair of really dark sunglasses like always.

"I'm gonna have to talk to Beni about it first, but yeah," Guren replied with a childish grin.

"Cool," Hyena nodded. "Just tell me when and I'll be there."

"Looks like the cavalry has arrived," Hyena motioned to large number of vehicles coming through the gate.

"Alright, let's get inside," Guren ordered.

"Roger that, boss," Bat nodded grabbing his bag and heading towards the main building.

They did as their letters instructed and head to the briefing room which looked like a classroom. Inside they found their CO and a member of the Air Force's aerial surveillance team waiting. The Zoo took their seat at the top of the amphitheater-like room. They also noticed that the other soldiers coming in were members of special units like Delta Force and Black Ops. That last ones to come in were a team Navy S.E.A.L.s and a team of Spec Ops.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why you are all here!" the CO spoke when everybody was sitting.

A few soldiers nodded but everybody else did not budge.

"The war maybe over, but there's still one battle to handle," the man blurted out with his hand behind his back. "We'd just received intel that a large amount of the North Korean commanders and general had gone into hiding a little bit before the end of the war with some unlikely allies."

The large screen behind him turned on and ten mug shots appeared.

"These are them!" he said slamming a hand on the screen.

"So we're going hunting then, huh?" Guren muttered.

"Exactly! Four of them are in the Middle East, another for are in Africa, one is in Brazil, and the last one is in Cuba," the surveillance officer nodded.

"The rest of the world is letting us handle this," the CO said. "And these are the battle plans…"

Guren sighed heavily as he looked out the opening of the Black Hawk at the night sky. It has been a few days since the briefing. After a quick flight to Florida, and a lift by Osprey to an aircraft carrier, the Zoo formulated a battle strategy over the next two days. They reached Cuba that morning and were carried off the ship by another Osprey to Guantanamo Bay. Now here they were in two new and improved Black Hawks with suppressed weapons at the ready.

After the former fascist leader and his brother we're killed by a war criminal tying-up loose ends fifty-somewhat years ago, Cuba was incredibly prosperous thanks to the man that took the reins. He's a good man wanting to hand the reins to someone worthy of the position. But his son was another story. Intel has proven that he is trying to take control of Cuba and return it to its former fascist ways. And that's the reason why the North Korean general is in Cuba. The fascist wannabe is providing him shelter in hope of getting help with usurping his father. And he thought his father was a clueless fool. What he did not know was that yesterday somebody from the American Embassy informed the Cuban leader about his son and he, though devastated, gave the Zoo the green light. The son had to be arrested, but they could whatever they wanted with the general.

Guren looked around the helicopter to the half of the Zoo that was with him. They were not allowed to bring their standard and assigned weapons. Instead, they had to use suppressed Honey Badger assault rifles and K7 sub machine guns. They were in full com-link with the other members of the Zoo in the other helicopter. They still had less than ten minutes of flight time before they were to reach the designated drop point. Guren knew his squad was nervous and on edge. Their target was protected by his own forces that managed to escape with him, so they knew they were in for a hell of a night and would not have to worry about killing Cuban soldiers.

Guren took a deep breath due his restlessness, and doing what he usually did when he got like that, he started singing. His choice of song shocked the team (for about a second), as he always sang happy songs. But today was different. He started singing 'Soldiers' by Otherwise.

It's time to strap our boots on
This is a perfect day to die
Wipe the blood out of our eyes

The squad member in the same Black Hawk joined in like usual when he did this.

In this life there's no surrender
There's nothing left for us to do
Find the strength to see this through

The others in the other helicopter heard what was going on through their coms and sang along.

We are the ones who will never be broken
With our final breath
We'll fight to the death
We are soldiers, we are soldiers
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
We are soldiers

The team either slammed the butt of their rifle against the floor or tapped the SMG with their hands to the rhythm as it picked up.

I stand here right beside you
Tonight we're fighting for our lives
Let me hear your battle cry
Your battle cry

We are the ones who will never be broken
With our final breath
We'll fight to the death
We are soldiers, we are soldiers

We are the ones who will not go unspoken (not go unspoken)
No, we will not sleep
We are not sheep
We are soldiers, we are soldiers
Yeah

We stand shoulder to shoulder
We stand shoulder to shoulder
We stand shoulder to shoulder
You can't erase us
You'll just have to face us

We stand shoulder to shoulder
We stand shoulder to shoulder
We stand shoulder to shoulder
You can't erase us
You'll just have to face us

We are the ones who will never be broken (never be broken)
With our final breath
We'll fight to the death
We are soldiers, we are soldiers

We are the ones who will not go unspoken (not go unspoken)
No, we will not sleep
We are not sheep
We are soldiers, we are soldiers
Yeah
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
We are soldiers
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
We are soldiers
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
We are soldiers

The silence after the song only lasted a few second. Guren could feel it in the air. His team was no longer on edge and seemed pumped. And it was Bat that broke the short-lived silence.

"Man, I feel better now," the young soldier grinned.

"I haven't felt this good since that time me and my buddies got arrested last month," added Coyote with a shit-eating grin.

"Why the fuck would that be a good thing?"

Everyone could hear the pissed tone in Falcon's voice as it came over the radio.

"While we were sitting the holding cell, we started singing that song 'I Will Survive' and we even started dancing too."

"Gosh you are an idiot!"

"Damn right he is," Guren chuckled over the line. "But he's our idiot."

"Oorah!" the marines grunted.

"Come in base, this is Cage-1, over," the pilot talked into his headset.

"This is base. We hear you Cage-1, what's your sitch?"

"We have eyes on target."

"Copy that. What is your ETA?"

"ETA in two mikes."

And two minutes later, the two Blackhawks landed on the other side of a tobacco farm with the Villa where their target was located was only half a mile away. Lucky for them is was night and heavily overcast and it was a new moon. That meant it was pitch black outside.

"Falcon get on that tree and be prepared to snipe!" Guren ordered pointing towards a large tree..

"Yes sir," she nodded and ran to the tree.

She climbed and when she found a group sturdy branches she prepped her new VKS silenced sniper rifle.

"Alright men, move out," Guren barked as he lead the rest of the team through the field of tobacco plants whilst crouching.

When they reached the building, they got to work. To avoid detection, Guren ordered then to shoot out the lights and slip on their night vision goggles. The immediate darkness was a shock to the NK guards and before they could grab their flashlights, The Zoo gunned them down. The ones on the roof were killed by Falcon.

"Alright scatter and cover all exits and prepare to breach," Guren muttered his orders.

"Yes sir," the team responded.

Bat and Hyena stay with him as the rest of the squad split off. When they reached Bat put up a breaching bomb on the double doors. Once all the doors were covered and the explosives were in place, Guren stared counting down.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

BOOM!

The next four seconds seemed to take forever as the guards went down as they were reacting to the door splintering. Their target which was sitting on a large comfy couch and smoking a cigar was now running trying to get away.

"We've got a runner!" Mongoose exclaimed as he was reloading.

"I got him!" Coyote replied as he took off after the target.

As the rest of the squad went through the villa clearing it of anymore hostiles, they could hear coyote finally tackling the war criminal through the com. Coyote was even throwing obscenities at him. Apparently the target almost made to the other side of the tobacco field.

"For a fatass, this guy can run," Coyote grumbled as he pushed the runner through the door with his hands held by zip-ties behind him three minutes later.

"Bag anything that might remotely seem important, while I call for pickup…"

"Phew, that was intense," Lynx chuckled and he stepped out of the C-17.

After they had gotten off Cuba, leaving the war criminal in Gitmo, they had flown through a powerful thunderstorm and severe turbulence before they reached their home base. Three marines of The Zoo had thrown up a few moments after they had gotten off the plane. Guren was the last one off and when he did, he noticed that the SGTMAJ was there.

"Gunnery Sergeant Nash," the older man spoke. "Your request has been accepted…"

That was tough! If you're wondering why I took so long, then let me tell you. I was reading some Tom Clancy novels to try and get some motivation for the Op scene. But as you can see how it is then you can see that that was a total failure since I wanted to do a well detailed scene.

Oh well, I hope you like it.

Please don't hurt me.

And please review.