A special briefing for special people, quite literally, is taking in one of the many Nassau-class U-boat in service of the Belkan Reich. Unlike the Reichsmarine's Nassau U-boats, however, this particular Nassau, the U-141, doesn't have the sa missile-launching capability as the rest. Instead, most of its internal systems are purpose-built to ensure long-endurance sortie, stealth, self-defense, and covert troop deploynt and recovery. Given its specializations, the U-141 is the first and one of the few U-boats in the Reich's arsenal to bear the title of 'Black Cigar'. This is primarily because of the Black Cigars' pitch-black exterior and the nurous redacted operations they carried out ever since their first inception. Predictably, these specialized U-boats are not under the normal Reichsmarine's chain of command, and only so qualified individuals know of their existence. Instead, Black Cigars like the U-141 operate under the banner of Special Operations Forces Command, a high-specs subunit of the Office of National Intelligence's Section Two, the covert ops departnt. Although their Section Chief Quellec has been indisposed to build an enduring intelligence network in treacherous Rusviet lands and even beyond, Section Two has been flourishing and highly active thanks to the managent of Section Chief Agent. Special Operations Forces Command, SOFCOM for short, has been Section Two's brainchild and ONI's best executors aside from the rarer Ravens.
Militarily speaking, SOFCOM is a unified combatant command that incorporates sea, air, and land forces that answer only to ONI. Other than the nurous specialized aircraft and vessels under its belt, SOFCOM incorporates a standing force of an Army Division's worth, the 141st Rapid Forces Division. Among SOFCOM's functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in mariti, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environnts. SOFCOM soldiers are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. SOFCOM personnel are hand-selected, highly trained, and highly proficient in unconventional warfare, direct action, and special reconnaissance, among other tasks like sabotage, demolition, intelligence gathering, and hydrographic reconnaissance, training, and advising friendly militaries or other forces. All active SOFCOM soldiers are mbers of the Belkan military, whether they're Army, Air Force, or Navy. Their heraldry doesn't matter, their loyalty is. To ensure the Special Operation Forces can operate at peak efficiency, these n and won are also given top-of-the-line equipnt and support, sotis rivaling those of Raven teams due to their ability to field larger forces from the get-go. As such, it isn't rare for Raven teams to work together with SOFCOM units on the off-chance that their mission details overlap.
Coincidentally, Ravens do not answer to SOFCOM even though their functions coincide with each other. While SOFCOM is put under Quellec's Section Two, Ravens remain an integral part of Section Four, a departnt with Drear as its Chief. This may confuse soone not in the known as to why would an organization fund two vastly different special units to fulfill the sa thing, but then you realize Ravens are still very much a rare commodity and that everyone still answers to the Reich Marshal and all of a sudden, it makes perfect sense.
Back to U-141, which also shares the sa numbering as the 141st Rapid Forces Division interestingly enough. Officers of SOFCOM are at the end of their pre-deploynt briefing, with them only needing to give their subordinates ending summaries. Captain Justin, a decorated veteran with Arican ancestry, is the one to cap everything off by saying.
"Unlike many other operations we have conducted as SOF, this one is downright simple. Using the cover of the night, we swim in, make landfall, take the HVT alive if possible, dead if necessary, and then extract preferably where we co from. Sound easy enough, right? So don't go at and have your equipnt fail you at the worst possible mont, yeah? Make sure to quadruple-check your diving and combat gear or shout out if you are physically or ntally unable to pull this op. No one will fault you for it other than Section One who will be breathing down your neck, capisce?"
"Yes, Captain!" Cos the chorus of acknowledgnt, so laid back, so even tone, but all seriously taken to the warning.
"Now, this is my personal feeling speaking, but we must not fuck this one up." Captain Justin adds with a frown. "Our HVT is one sicko wearing the Brigade General armband, and if the na Antosz isn't repulsive enough, he got a rap sheet worth going under two cris again man trials and they still won't be enough to hold him accountable. To add more smudge onto the curd's na, he's a zealous supporter of the Polanian Revolutionary Command Council. And since he willingly condoned and even conducted so of the atrocities the Council did in his rise to power, Antosz won't be going down with a white flag. Psych evaluation pegged him as the 'you're going down with ' type, so he needs to go before the Marines make landfall. With him in power, Gdańsk is at risk of self-immolation and its civilians perishing along with it."
The Captain stops to take a breath before adding. "Of course, there's nothing a well-placed 500 kg bomb can't handle, but if we can get Antosz to answer for his cri, then it will do us a lot of goodwill from the rest of the world in the long run. However, it doesn't an that we will have to shy away from executing the bastard right then and there when the need arises. If extracting with him along is not an option, then we dump him, understood?"
"Crystal, sir!" The SOF soldiers shout.
Captain Justin nods, before crossing his arms and stepping to the side. Turning to his right, he looks at the lady who has been standing just slightly behind him. "Uh, Zephyn, would you mind gracing us with your schedule?"
With a grin on her face and a hand adjusting her costic pair of glasses, a Devil with sheep horns, white hair, and gray eyes says.
"Ladies," She addresses the soldier boys in front of her, waving her hands to share the joyful news she is bringing to them. "Today, we have a symphony of firepower for this mish."
Understandably, the ntion of firepower brings an expectant grin onto everyone's face. Clicking on her military tablet, Zephyn projects a spinning holographic image of a standard Belkan UAV.
"We're kicking it off with an ard Barracuda that'll have our backs over the whole duration of the mission. It's in beast mode so expect the whole shebangs of Jagers, Daggers, and GBUs."
So SOF soldiers share a nodding look at one another, visibly pleased that they will have precision deletion at a mont's notice. But apparently, the good news doesn't stop there.
Zephyn continues to add while changing the holographic projection to show a bigger aircraft. "Additionally, we have support from an AC-400 gunship, our good old pal Kriegsdude, so keep your strobes on."
At that, a few of the SOF can't stop themselves from whistling, with the unit's JTAC fist bumping with a couple of them as he will be the one to direct the air assets.
Zephyn smirks at the controlled excitent the boys have. "I'm going to be on the mic with everyone from here to the end of the world, so unless you're moving to a position that you haven't briefed in this mission, leave alone."
Captain Justin and the rest of the soldiers nod at that, with their brains rembering so of the Devil's reasonable crash-outs. There's a whole story behind each of them, but it's best not to dig too deep on any of them.
"devac is 15 minutes out," Zephyn pans her gaze to them all, delivering her last sentence with a casual tone. "so if you get shot, bleed slow."
Granted, 15 minutes is an extrely fast ti fra for any sort of extraction already, but the sentint is there, and the boys take to the Devil's words with nods and smiling acceptance. Seeing that all of his soldiers are already prid and raring, Captain Justin gives Zephyn a grateful nod before stepping forward once more. Taking a deep breath, Justin nods at his n with barely contained eagerness.
"Whose dick's hard?"
In response to Justin's question and much to Zephyn's undisguised amusent, all of the SOF soldiers raise their hands.
They are very special people...
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In lieu of multiple missile hatches, Black Cigars like the U-141 have two large modular bays. These bays are Dry Deck Shelters, removable modules that can be attached to a submarine to allow divers easy exit and entrance while the boat is subrged. Each DDS cannot only deploy SOF soldiers but also several aquatic vehicles for them to use. Due to the need to silently navigate beyond the confine of Gdańsk's militarized harbor to get to the HVT's mansion, Captain Justin and his n use Subrsible Delivery Vehicles, SDVs, as ans of transport. With each SDV capable of housing six, SPI-wearing SOF soldiers, you would think that they would be going in with a twelve-man Squad. But no, since they will have to extract an HVT, they can only bring ten people for the two-way trip. The last two positions will be occupied by both the HVT and the gear required to keep the man detained and not drowning in the SDV. Quite a bit of a hassle, no? But since an aerial insertion and extraction will no doubt invite much scrutiny, a more patient undertaking is required. Support like the Barracuda UAV and Kriegsdude are the last resorts.
As Special Operation Forces, Captain Justin and his subordinates are all wearing SPI suits, albeit modified with attachnts for underwater and amphibious operations. With oxygen provided by not just his helt but also a backup ergency rebreather, Justin oversees the process of his n loading up into the SDVs. These SDVs are fascinating as they are roomy enough to house power armor soldiers while remaining stealthy insertion vehicles with top-of-the-line sensors and communication suites. The only downside is that the SDVs are free-flooding subrsible, aning they're always filled with water while subrged. This prevents them from achieving high endurance for days-long missions, aning each mission must be precisely calculated to ensure the feasibility of each SDV's deploynt. That said, there's apparently a larger SOF subrsible in developnt, one that is made to be an actual midget submarine and is aptly called Dry Combat Subrsible. If anything, an additional deploynt option is always welco in the SOFCOM's repertoire.
"Rampant 1-1, Rampant 2-1, this is Zephyn." Cos the voice of their Devilish mission operator. "You boys getting comfortable in those caskets yet?"
Captain Justin promptly replies as he shuts the hatch of the SDV above his head. "We're just getting warr up here, Zep, what's up?"
As the SDVs slowly ascend above and out of U-141's Dry Deck Shelters, Zephyn reports a new developnt. "It would appear two of their torpedo boats are mobilizing."
The SOF Captain frowns as the SDVs power up their main propellers and steadily swim ahead at 7 knots. "Have we been made? Over."
Zephyn chuckles. "Fortunately not, Captain. No alarm has been raised in Gdańsk. This appears to be an impromptu patrol by a couple of Polanian Navy's commanders. It doesn't change the fact that they are out there and are patrolling near your ingress vector. I will use the Barracuda to guide you all in but be careful. They may not have sonar or hydrophone, but they can get lucky while you try to make landfall. Over."
"Understood." Captain Justin replies before slowly looking around the flooded compartnt of his SDV. "You got that Rampant 1, Rampant 2?"
"Affirmative, Captain."
"1-1, we heard you loud and clear. We will stick behind to cover you while you hit the beach. Over."
"Good. 2-1, you're also tasked with mining those berthed warships, so tag as many as you can, but don't risk it. There's no telling whether those torpedo boats will return midway and catch you red-handed. Over."
"Roger that, 1-1."
As the SDVs form a line to make a long swim to the Gdańsk, Captain Justin says one last thing as U-141 falls out of scope. "This is it, boys, may the Mother Goddess watch over us and the Marshal blesses us with her fortune of war. Over and out."
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