DEFCON Year New Generation: Leigh Barton

Chapter 5

On the following day, Leigh and her team were joined by a whole company of US Marines, all of whom were armed with either a Heckler & Koch M27 rifle in short-barreled or standard-barrel-length configuration or with a FN Herstal M4A1 carbine alongside a SIG-Sauer M18 pistol while others had a FN Herstal M240 machine. Darnell knew the team needed that help since the intelligence Leigh and the team sent back to HQ revealed that the individuals who were attempting to kill both the American and the Chinese delegations were part of an ultra-extremist group with ties not yet known by the Pentagon and the US Government. The team also saw that almost half of the Marine company numbers were made up of female personel.

But the United States, led by President Wally Barnes, didn't want any country being the scapegoat of unfounded accusations by the White House or the US Congress. Hence Leigh and her team's job to establish who these extremists were tied to and find hard evidence of those links with said extremists.

But first, Leigh had to identify who the extremists' contacts were, meaning they had to hack into the cellphones they found to further know what alias the contacts as well as the layout of the places they were going to raid, since the Americans already had the addresses they needed to raid. However, they had to do it at night, when most people weren't outside.

Knowing this, Leigh and the rest of the team took glow sticks and some AN/PVS-31 night-vision goggles before strapping their helmet with an infrared strobe on the back of the helmet and the night-vision goggles at the front for balancing purpose. Leigh and her team the refilled their ammunition and grenades before they and the rest of the US Marines went to work with Leigh and her team hacking into the phones while the other US Marines began training extra hard, knowing the task wouldn't be easy.

But the more she looked into the intelligence they found until then, the more Leigh discovered the US delegation was targeted due to it being made up of Democrats and moderate Republicans, all of whom united and had finally managed to vote America's entry into World War III in 2024 and whose alliance got even stronger since then.

Leigh now had a motive for the attacks against the US delegation in China. And said extremists were trying to kill the American delegation due to their political alignment with Joe Biden, contributing to his reelection, as well as their alignment with President Barnes.

After two hours of hacking, Dunning finally found some information about their targets in the form of emails and phone numbers while Marquez found the layout of the places the US Marines were going to raid thanks to several phone calls in which he masqueraded as a potential buyer to gain blueprints of said buildings.

Leigh meanwhile, found the first alias in the list of contacts. It happened to be a man called "The Ace". Knowing this information would be vital, Leigh memorized it before she and the rest of her team went to the briefing room, where she knew the US Infantry Marines were patiently waiting for the briefing.

As Darnell and LaRue turned the computer and the projector on, Leigh stood in front of the Infantry Marines before the pictures were displayed on the white screen.

"First things first. We know our delegation tasked with negociating our presence in the Gulf of Tonkin has narrowly escaped two attacks. We know why the extremists did what they did. The motive is the political alignment of delegation representatives with two-term President Joe Biden, who led our country to victory in World War III, and his successor, current President Wally Barnes.

Second, we know they were in contact with a man going by the alias of "The Ace". We do know they have at least eigh hideouts at these addresses." Leigh told the company while the screen changed to the addresses of the safehouses.

"The targets are known to be two-level apartment buildings within the suburbs of Wuhan. We won't trust the cops. We just go in, take the intel and get the fuck outta there. Means we'll be nearly on our own." Darnell concluded.

As the Intelligence squad showed pictures of the layout to the Infantry company, the Infantry Marines understood the scope of their mission to be larger than just a few individuals, but world peace being at stake. They understood the old saying to prepare for war when we were still at peace still stood, meaning President Barnes needed hard evidence to be able to speak softly but have a big stick.