Thunderhead

Left to right: Mokri, Davies, Goto, King, Cao and Allen

Thunderhead is the team that specialises in heavy attack.Their purpose is to breach criminal strongholds when a stealth approach is not needed or the “enemy” has access to heavy weaponary. Equipped with vehicles able to perform the task the team can also be called upon to serve in a support role, backing up the other head teams

CLEA DATA FILE

Primary Role:

• Ground Attack/Support where speed is less of a requirement than firepower and protection.

Mission Types:

• Extraction under fire
• Interdiction
• Demolition
• Rescue
• Support
• Strike

Team Identities:

• Jonathon “Big Jon” Davies – Team Commander
• Dariush Mokri
• Theodore King
• Haruki Goto
• Lian Cao
• Cheyanna Allen

CLEA Classification:

• Specialist Combatant (Entire Team)

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

• Combat veterans (Davies, Mokri King and Goto)
• Firearms trained (all)
• Martial arts trained (Cao and Allen)
• Their vehicles are the most powerful in CLEA’s arsenal.

Tactical Weakness(s):

• Due to the vehicles the team is slow to mobilise giving the “enemy” plenty of time to prepare.
• None stealthy.

Notes/History

When chief Naylor came to set up “Thunderhead” she had in mind a unit that could save civilians lives when a known area was suspected to be using far more heavy weaponry than Spearhead could deal with. During her time in her position she had seen reports that criminals were finding ways of getting their hands on military grade hardware up to and including transport the size of boats and submarines.
Spearhead’s main missions were to get in fast and do their job before the criminals were aware of what was happening. By giving that team access to fast attack vehicles they relied more on speed and surprise to succeed. She envisaged the team could deal with weapon threats equal to the their own but she had concerns for criminals that got their hands on something bigger.
She knew that eventually CLEA might have to face down heavily armoured vehicles. Such criminals used strength and power to get their work done. Civilians were used less as hostages and more as pawns, collateral damage to keep security forces busy whilst they carried out their plan.
Naylor therefore wanted a team that could go toe-to-toe a take on such a threat head on. This would become “Thunderhead”.

With most of the other “head” teams Naylor had her people scour hundreds of personnel files before making a choice for a team leader and left the assembling of the team to that one person. In the case of Thunderhead she never thought in her mind that an actual team would present itself to her in the form of Jon Davies and Theo King.

Within weeks of the word getting out that CLEA was looking to set up a Heavy vehicle team, the pair had found their way to Atlantica city and camped outside CLEA’s offices. Both men were retired from their respective armed services and had met via the War Dog Association, a word wide organisation that allowed for retired servicemen and women to meet.
Over a period of years via various functions Jon and Theo had formed a strong friendship with four other men, Dariush Mokri, Haruki Goto, Michael Windsor and Alfredo Pisani. Though none had served in the same armed services they had all served in their countries’ armoured divisions. Some have even fought alongside each other via UN peacekeeping campaigns.
The main thing they had all found they had in common was that retirement life did not suit them. They were soldiers without a war. Jon was in his late fifties and missed the action so when he learned of the CLEA team being set up he had a crazy idea, hence this was how he and Theo came to be outside CLEA HQ in Atlantica.

Naylor who happened to be at the HQ at the time, a rarity decided to meet with the pair rather than hand them to someone lower. She felt they at least deserved some respect. Though both of them admitted they were passed their pique they stated what they had in return was experience. Naylor though had been hoping to look at younger team but since she was only slightly older than Jon she considered what it would feel like to be unemployed simply because of age.
During discussions she suggested perhaps they could serve CLEA in a training role but that they politely declined that offer. Flying a desk was not for them. To this day she did not know if she was simply feeling sorry or being sympathetic but by the end of the meeting she had struck a deal and that was they and their “friends” could form the team, as it was going to be a six man group but only if they could pass the CLEA physical training that all the other “head” teams had gone through. Whilst not the highest scores in the physical training, Jon, Theo, Dariush and Haruki, Michael and Alfredo did actually pass and “Thunderhead” became an official unit.

When it came to a choice of vehicle a pair of the latest APCs were given to Thunderhead. Fitted with a powerful roof mounted canon and machine gun cluster, the CLEA advisors suggested that it was the ideal all round weapon. Jon, recognised as the team leader though felt the APC’s would not be able to deal with the types of opposition the team was supposed to face. He suggested a tank and APC, which Naylor thought was something of a joke idea.

Four successful missions in though and Jon’s fears became a reality when the weapons expert known as Mechaniac hijacked the opening ceremony of the Wyvern Tower. The villain liked to test his weaponry to show it off to his buyers so when his latest robots invaded the ceremony and surrounding streets he knew that sooner or later military action would be taken to free the hostages, which included many foreign dignitaries.

Having learned from what happened with the Greenhand incident in Arizona, Naylor tried to persuade the American Government to allow her Thunderhead team to deploy as CLEA had some experience in dealing with Mechaniac. The government declined as being on television they felt they had to show the world they could deal with a terrorist threat.
In almost a carbon copy of the Arizona incident a special forces team were sent in and Mechaniac got what he wanted, real soldiers to test his hardware. In a matter of minutes it was a bloodbath and around the tower resembled a warzone.
Camera footage showed two teams being slaughtered by the Mechaniac’s machines. Of the sixteen people that attempted to make it to the tower two made it to cover about halfway between the plaza perimeter and the building.
The robots seemed to ignore them although knowing the Mechaniac’s mentality, Naylor presumed they were being used as bait. The American military started to mobilise but the chief suspected what might happen and had already got Thunderhead in the air and on its way.

CLEA team would get their ahead of the military units being detached so finally Naylor got permission to deploy. Upon landing at an airfield in the centre of Pacifica, Jon, Theo and Dariush mounted one vehicle whilst Haruki, Michael and Alfredo got in the other. The small convoy then headed towards the Wyvern tower along a route cleared by police.

Weapons hot they entered the plaza and the robots advanced. The roof cannons took out several before the robots altered their stategy and decided to target one vehicle at a time. Haruki was the lead unit and Jon watched in horror as the concentrated fire tore through the APC and it exploded in a column of flame. Just as he suspected the armour on such vehicles would never be strong enough for a frontal assault but there was no time to grieve for they were close to the tower.

Making his way around the wreck he smashed into the foyer and spun it around. Now with a makeshift bunker around his vehicle he opened fire at the mechanical army.

One cannon was never going to be enough but it would have to do. Dariush did his best whilst Theo left the safety of the vehicle to set up an assault gun. Whilst this was happening the two female special forces officers that had survived the slaughter used the distraction to make it to the burning APC. The robots had moved past that vehicle as the concentrated their efforts on the remaining operation unit. After reaching the APC the two women pulled Haruki and Alfredo out of the wreck, before running around to release the locks on the roof cannon.

Though the vehicle was on its side the cannon still had some elevation and rotational controls. By manually operating the cannon the robots were caught in a cross fire. Jon saw the incoming fire and launched his APC towards the metal combatants felling one down before the AI’s could alter the strategy. The women brought down another hitting it from behind, before the last one exploded inexplicably.

Naylor expected this as the Mechaniac never wanted his “toys” to be examined.
The threat over, the “hostages” were able to leave the Tower and Jon could assess the disaster after meeting the two women, Cheyanna Allen and Lian Cao who had provided the necessary break he needed to steal victory from defeat.

Though they had pulled Alfredo out of the wreck he was dead, along with Michael who had been trapped inside, making Haruki the only survivor. To add insult to injury, during the clean-up operations CLEA intel learned the Mechaniac had never been at Wyvern Tower during the siege but instead had left shortly before it had begun. CLEA and the Special Forces teams had proved he still had work to do but a successful “weapons test” had enabled him to sell several of his prototype units.

Having only been an operational unit for a very short time the loss of two members was a serious affair and the other CLEA chiefs suggested suspending Thunderhead operations until the enquiry was over which took four months.

After accepting that the team had done everything by the book no reprimands were deemed necessary. As per Jon’s initial request the APC was not replaced with another one but instead Thor MBT. Before going operational though the only job left was to replace their fallen friends.

When the news went out two “unexpected” people showed up in the resume pile, namely Cheyanna Allen and Lian Cao. Just as Naylor had brought him and Theo in when they had applied for the job, Jon felt the two women deserved to be heard.

Already they had shown incredible bravery and combat skills so he did not doubt their commitment. What he was unsure about was why they would choose to leave an otherwise excellent careers to join a bunch of “dinosaurs”. Then when they explained themselves he knew why.

After returning to their unit’s CO they wanted another crack at the Mechaniac but that was not possible since the villain had already fled America. They had lost practically all their friends and it had been seemingly for nothing so they only chance they would get to go after the murderer was by joining CLEA.
Though Jon had originally been going to hire another pair of veterans he would not deny the women the chance of some payback. That much he felt he owed them.  Cheyanna and Lian accepted the job offer even though Jon had made it quite clear he did not know when, or even if Thunderhead would come across the Mechaniac again.