Thursday 19 February 2015

Police Month Week Three- SWAT Team Bravo

Police month reaches it's third week, and this time it is time to call in the cavalry- SWAT are here!

"... Confirmed, SWAT is five minutes out...

Simple briefing, three cops were at the location, contact with them was spotty. First cop on scene, DCI Calvin had called it in, officer in need of assistance. Nothing else heard from him. Second set of cops was Officers Decarlo and Daniels called it in, saying that they had shots fired, and were moving in to assist Calvin. Nothing else heard from them.

SWAT Team Bravo was two minutes out now, helmets on, weapons ready. Other police units were meant to be on their way, but they had been called to other locations. Must have been the heat or something, whole town had gone crazy.

The team arrive at the location, their van pulling up behind the empty patrol car. The four man team swept out of the back door of the van, first stopping at the patrol car. It's doors were closed, nothing out of the ordinary. They then swept forward, towards the building. Calvin's car was nearby, again all closed up, nothing out of the ordinary.

No signs of any trouble. No gunflashes, no panicked calls to dispatch. Not even anyone on the street.

The four man team stacked up at the front door, weapons ready, scanning the area. The front man checked the door- unlocked.

So why hadn't the officers gotten out? Why hadn't they called for help?

The lead man yelled "POLICE, OPEN UP" before the team swept through the front door, guns up. The café was empty, tables, chairs and counter looked as though nothing had happened here. The room was clean, cleared and ready for the morning commuters.

Weapons raised, the four man team moved quickly through the open café.

The team paused as they heard footsteps upstairs.

The men pushed for the rear stairwell, moving up the stairs. Their heavy boots stomped their way up, the men breathing heavily under the weight of their armour and equipment. Reaching the top of the stairs, there was a door to the right for the first floor seating, with the toilets ahead of them. The squad leader paused the team, using hand signals to prepare to move through to the seating area.

The team leader pushed slowly at the door, trying to be as quiet as possible.

The door opened easily, the team moved through, flashlights sweeping the room. The room was a charnel house, blood splatters across the floor. tables were upturned, chairs were strewn about the floor.

The squad stopped. All four weapon mounted flashlights were focused on a single lone figure, standing staring out of the window. The woman wore a police issue stab proof vest, blood dripped from her arm, pooling on the floor. While the rest of their team kept their weapons trained on Decarlo, one officer moved forward, cautiously edging towards her. He raised his arm to grab hers, to escort her out of the room. He spoke softly, quietly. He gripped her arm tightly and gently pulled her forward, moving her from the room.

As he pulled her around, he saw her lifeless white eyes, blood was spread down the front of her uniform staining her once crisp white shirt stained a dark red. Her vest had two neat bullet holes in the front, close range rounds which had penetrated through the vest. The officer didn't have time to contemplate what that meant, as Decarlo lunged, biting the officer in the neck, dragging him to the ground. As the officer grasped at his throat, choking on his own blood, what was once Decarlo stooped over the corpse, fresh blood dripping from her jaws.

The rest of their team had gotten over their shock, their M4s spat 5.56 rounds at Decarlo. The high velocity rounds bit into her, easily penetrating her stab proof vest. The weight of fire tore her apart in a split second, she dropped next to the fallen officer, who was still clutching his throat.

A door on the side of the room burst open, more figures emerged. They had the same deathly expressions, the same grey skin, blood stained their mouths. The officers switched fire to the newly emerging figures. Their accurate fire took its toll on the newly arrived figures, all of them dropping to the floor. The officers moved quickly to the side of their fallen comrade, one officer covering each exit while the third knelt over their wounded team mate.

More figures emerged from the doorway, stumbling over those who had been shot earlier. The officers put them down with calm, disciplined shots.

He was so focused on plugging the wound and starting CPR that he wasn't aware of where he put his foot. Decarlo's upper body pulled itself forward, grabbing the officer attempting CPR on the ankle and biting down deep into his leg. His cries of pain were muffled by his former team mate rising up and biting him in the throat. The officer fell, his former team mate on top of him, tearing at any exposed skin.

One of the remaining officers panicked, firing wildly into the former police officers. His bullets took chunks of flesh, bone and brain as they tore through them. Most of those they had shot earlier stood up, and continued to advance on the two remaining officers. The two continued to fire at those in front of them. Their shooting was less accurate now, no longer neat double taps to the centre mass of the target. Their ammunition running low, the two crouched low behind a table trying to save their bullets as much as they could.

They had been so focused on the problem in front of them that they hadn't noticed one of the figures moving quietly behind them, edging closer to them, arm outstretched, it made a grab for one of the officers.

BOOM.

A single shot to the head stopped it in it's tracks.

"Somebody call 911?" A dry female voice said. The two SWAT officers gave her a look reminiscent of a deer in the headlights.

Shotgun raised, she popped off a couple of shots before sitting with her back to the table like the others.

A bloke in a dull grey suit joined the group.

"Lads" he said nodding to each of them. "Think we probably ought to get a wriggle on aye?"...







My SWAT Team are from Eureka Miniatures, and are most of the remainder of the SEAL Team Six set after I completed Coop. In actual fact, these guys were completed first, but I felt that arming a SWAT unit with an M249 would be slightly odd, which led me to creating Coop, which led to Sasha, and the two of them are probably my favourite survivors so far!

The paint job is pretty standard, black body armour and dark blue BDUs. The only conversions I have done is to give a couple of them balaclavas, and to change a few of the panels on their body armour to make them look a little less military. I added American flag decals from Company B to complete the models and give them a little bit of colour, other than that they are a pretty standard build!

One more week for Police Month, one more copper (or set of coppers!) to go....

Chris

14 comments:

  1. Great looking team, I wish I'd gone for a slightly lighter blue on my SWAT team, mine are very dark in comparison.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Police blue is a funny colour, This is Kantor Blue from Games Workshop. It helps that the body armour is black, because it makes the dark blue look even more blue!

      Delete
  2. The team looks great.... hope my swat team will look as great as yours.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. What miniatures are you going to use for yours? I do have to recommend Kantor Blue, it is a nice dark blue for a SWAT uniform

      Delete
  3. excellent painting on great figures. At first I thought the box was a model of a burnt out building until I saw it was nz post!! Looks like it could be a great 'in game' shot!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly not a burnt out building, instead it is my spray painting box! And as for the posing, it was just too tempting to have them sweeping around a corner to find that...

      Delete
  4. Excellent SWAT team and very well painted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. My police force is growing nicely, getting close to completing all the cops I have!

      Delete
  5. Great backstory and a lovely looking S.W.A.T. team. Fabulous job dude!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks bud. One more week of cops, then I get to write about something else, yay!!!

      Delete
  6. These look great. I have to admit I never thought of using these figures as SWAT but the go perfectly well! Great job they make an awesome team. Does this one come with the dog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was an article about the militarisation of the U.S. police that made me think of it! These guys have been painted as SEALs, SAS and Delta, but I like them most as cops!

      This is from the pack with the dog (and coop!). However the dog is currently doing duty for moderns forces, he hasn't made the transition to a K-9 unit!

      Delete
  7. Great looking minis, a nice team!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil, good sculpts and I think they have come out well!

      Delete