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

Eighth Survivor- LCpl Sean Coop Cooper- Part 1

This week's Survivor is part one of a two part story...

A tall man in what was once an expensive suit knelt on the floor, trying to will his friend back to life. He beat on his chest, hitting it harder and harder. But there was no response. There were eight men in the large, round room. Five wore dark suits, Uzi submachineguns in their hands, fully loaded clips. All of the guns were pointed at entrances, doors and windows. The final man wore body armour and camouflage fatigues, standing beside the man attempting to save his friend's life.

One of the black suited men ran forward, speaking to the man. "Sir?.... Sir?... He has gone Sir, I need to get you out of here now, Sir?..."

No response from him, his attempts at life saving continued. He wasn't like the soldier, or the other suited men. He wasn't used to death. But who could be used to this much death?

A rasping sound came from the supposedly dead man on the floor. A "dead" arm moved to grab it's one time friend.

The soldier moved immediately. Drawing his pistol, he forcibly pulled the man off the "dead" man he was trying so desperately to save.

The single shot brought the suited man to his senses. Seeing his friend, his co-worker, his ally, someone he had worked with long hours, through good and bad times get shot in the head brought it all back to reality. Who could be used to death? There were a few people. But who could be used to this? He sat, leaning against the heavy wooden table.

With a groan, he stood up, his voice spoke slowly, trembling "...get her. Please get her.... then you can save me"

The soldier turned, holstered his pistol and said matter of fact, "Sir, yes sir. The team has already been sent"

Or that is at least what I imagine happened. I wasn't there. I was in a briefing, me and every other Special Forces Soldier this side of Baghdad. Every single one of us got packed into whatever bird they could get in the air to save this person or that person. No one could predict how fast the cities would fall, how many there would be, how ineffective our preventative measures would be. So they sent us in, the "best of the best" and all that on these suicide missions to save some five star general or some politician who couldn't get out of town fast enough.

So I'm there, taking a briefing on the lawn, all the while I can see and hear the reservists setting perimeters, getting guns ready and squaring themselves away. I have nothing but respect for those reservists, man if I had a family? no way in hell I would be here, I would have nicked off the first chance I got. Would have taken my rifle and all the bullets I could carry too. But they were there, they were the biggest god damn heroes that day if you ask me.

Our tasking was somewhere across town. Should still be still in the main building. Should. If there was a main building left. We had better intel on what is happening on Pluto than we do about the streets between us and them.

Our ride for that day was the Channel 7 News Copter, it was landed nearby, so we grabbed their pilot and hopped in. Pity the weather girl wasn't part of the deal. She was sitting there with her head in her hands. She wasn't crying, her tears had run out long ago. Lucky for her she didn't come for a ride along, she was safer with the reservists. The bird is in the air two minutes later, it didn't exactly take long to share our zero intel at the briefing. At least we knew the name of the building I guess.

Out on the street, the city is burning.

It doesn't take long to get there. The chopper lands on the nearest piece of flat land, and my team moves out. The door ahead of us is still closed, there is no movement anywhere near us. The chopper takes off again, and it seems quiet. It isn't, alarms and sirens scream, fires burn and engines roar. Somehow, in all that noise, it feels quiet. It just doesn't feel right.

Our four man team stacks up at the door, guns up, with no idea what we will find on the inside....

LCpl Cooper comes from Eureka Miniatures, from their SEAL Team Six pack. I really like the set of figures, they are characterful and well sculpted. You can be sure that the rest of them will make an appearance here soon too! I decided that Cooper was a Recon Marine, so his camo is woodland MARPAT (Marine Pattern). I also gave him a big pack, taken from one of the 1/48th scale Airfix soldiers. After all, you have to have a place to keep all your supplies! The join between the was filled using greenstuff, and some pack straps added too. I resisted the urge to put a camo pattern on the pack, fearing that it would make the model too "busy".

I quite liked painting the camo actually, it makes me want to do more of them! One of the big drivers for me starting this project was to paint something OTHER than camo, and here I am, right back on the wagon. It is possible I have some form of addiction....

Anyway, there you have it, "Coop", with his M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, ready to go. And as for part two, seems a bit cruel to make you wait a whole week until next Friday. So I think Part 2 will be up Monday, as a bonus survivor. Sound good?

Chris