The Grey Fox Commando Group (グレイフォックス・
Background[]
Although the group are members of the United States military, they do not dress in U.S. military uniforms for their missions. They are of various ranks, including staff sergeants, sergeant majors, a captain and a major, and among the soldiers are a few trained snipers. A common gun that Grey Fox soldiers use is the Colt M4A1 rifle as well as the M14/M21 rifle for snipers. Each member wears a tactical vest and simple clothing like plain shirts and jeans, of course carrying various military equipment for communications, defense, and the like. The team is divided into five teams: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Of these five, the first three are the primary forces.
History[]
The only two members whose history has some light shed on them before the unit's creation are Shane Caxton and Raymond McDougal, both of whom served as U.S. Army soldiers in the same unit in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1971.[2] In 1980, Caxton then participated in the unsuccessful Operation Eagle Claw to rescue American embassy staff in Iran.[3] Because of the mission and cohesion failures in the operation, the U.S. SOCOM came into being within the same decade. Later, the Grey Fox Commando Group was formed by the NSA in 1994 and integrated into SOCOM for trial purposes to carry out high-priority foreign missions of political nature.[1]
El Baile de la muerte / Roberta's Blood Trail[]
A notorious mission that they carried out on behalf of the NSA in the mid-1990s was Plan 117 in Barinas State, Venezuela to kill a new leader of the popular leftist party MVR with a controlled explosion. Six months before the bombing was to be carried out, Caxton and McDougal met up with U.S. Army Colonel Simon Dickens and Marcos José Lucientes, the latter of whom resigned from the Venezuelan government's military counterintelligence agency four months later. On the day of the bombing, Lucientes and five of his men were in charge of stage security for the political rally.[4] Seeing the leader walk onstage, Wright radioed to Caxton about his presence. Caxton then repeated the phrase "Davy Crockett has left for Lone Star" to order his men to set off the explosion. In the aftermath, ten people were killed, including the political leader and his prominent friend, Diego Lovelace, the latter murder not being intended by Grey Fox. Immediately after they set the bomb, Grey Fox left and returned to the United States.[5] As a result, Grey Fox gained two enemies, one being the Central Intelligence Agency because the bombing was done without consulting them, which messed up the CIA's Latin American operations.[6] The other new enemy of Grey Fox was Rosarita Cisneros, the head maid to the Lovelace Family and a close confidant of Diego Lovelace. The killing of Diego made Roberta so furious that she decided she would use her killing abilities once more to seek revenge on those who killed the Lovelace family patriarch.
Although it was reported that a few members of a right-wing paramilitary group were arrested for the bombing, Roberta knew that this cover story was too convenient, and members of the Venezuelan military sympathetic to the MVR visited the Lovelace estate to tell Garcia Lovelace, the son of Diego, and Roberta about 6 conspirators with Western ties involved in the bombing. Accordingly, Roberta tracked down and killed all 6 members, the leader of these men being Marcos José Lucientes.[4] After learning about the NSA's involvement from Lucientes, Roberta then hunted down and abducted Colonel Simon Dickens, the head of the NSA's operations in Latin America. After interrogating and torturing him, she learned about the Grey Fox unit, revealing the true enemy.[7]
At the same time, Grey Fox went to Roanapur, Thailand as a starting point in their new mission, Operation China Pit, to capture Shue Yan, a powerful general of the Mong Tai Army in the Golden Triangle border region under Khun Sa's command, so that they could put him on trial for his illegal mass opium production.[1] At the same time, one of the NSA's executive units in Manila was captured, and Caxton and McDougal were spotted boarding a civilian airplane to Thailand.[5] Because they did not have good relations with the Thai military, Shane Caxton and his men were not able to enter the Golden Triangle via an air drop, so they covertly entered the country and stayed in a few motels in Roanapur, feeling great suspicion about the city.[3] Of Grey Fox's three main teams, Team Alpha (with Caxton as leader) resided in Tokaīna Hotel, Team Bravo resided in the Blue Moon Motel, and Team Charlie resided in the Ramsap Inn.[1] In a short amount of time, the various crime syndicates found out about the U.S. Army's presence in the city, with Mister Chang holding a meeting to discuss what steps each mafia should take. Meanwhile, Eda, herself a CIA contact who did not want the U.S. Army interfering with CIA operations in Roanapur, also wanted Grey Fox out of the area but also wanted to prevent Roberta from destroying the city. Balalaika, not wanting the U.S. Army to interfere with Roanapur's drug trade, had initially wanted to engage with the soldiers and kill them all.[8]
The next morning, Mister Chang convinced her not to possibly throw her life away by dying in combat, so Balalaika instead planned to deploy her Vysotniki to escort the U.S. troops out of Roanapur, not wanting any other groups to interfere since she felt that only soldiers of equal power had the right to confront the U.S. Army. Having several new enemies in the city, Caxton had several of his men keep intelligence on hostile forces in the city, not yet knowing that Roberta was after their heads. When the sun was close to setting, Will told Caxton that Brigadier General Wilder approved their mission to go through, so Caxton told Will to leave the area before things went down.[9] As the U.S. soldiers prepared to leave, several low-rate gunmen—led by Bugsy Lance and hired by Bren the Black Death and Filano—tried to storm Grey Fox's locations but were easily pushed back. Detonating Claymore mines to create their escape, Caxton and his men went to the roof and saw Roberta with a Barrett sniper rifle, immediately taking cover and using a smoke grenade to hide their bodies. Annoyed by the smoke, Roberta fired several rounds at them with her high-powered sniper rifle, so Caxton ordered a few men to engage in suppressive fire. Thanks to the U.S. troops' coordination, they quickly and successfully escaped her range by covering each other and traveling onto nearby rooftops.[10]
While fleeing from Roberta at night, the troops prepared to flank her with a pincer formation in order to kill her, planning to find a hideout in the outskirts and call the NSA for further instructions after evading the city's hostile parties. At that point, some troops entered the empty building that she was in.[11] Inside, one of the soldiers, Horner, saw that Garcia was going to be killed by a hallucinating Roberta. To save him, he and Burroughs shot Roberta's gun out of her hand while Sanchez threw a smoke grenade toward her. Immediately, Horner jumped forward to grab the boy and brought him to safety. On the way out of the building, Burroughs reported back to Caxton about the boy almost being killed but lived thanks to Horner's quick actions, so Caxton decided that they would prioritize getting the boy to a safe place. Accordingly, some of the troops volunteered to stay behind and watch Garcia while the rest left to get to their rendezvous point to leave Roanapur.[12] Soon, Garcia woke up and was scared of the soldiers, soon recognizing Caxton as one of the people involved in the (accidental) murder of his father.[13] When no one was looking, the young boy grabbed a gun on the ground and tried to shoot Caxton but got disarmed. Confused, Caxton asked him who he was since he viewed the boy as no ordinary child, and Garcia told him that he knew about the bombing in Barinas. Feeling sorry for Garcia, the Grey Fox leader even offered Garcia a pistol to shoot him as revenge, causing Caxton's men to raise their guns in response.[14]
In the tense moment, L.G. and other soldiers claimed that they had to treat Garcia as a threat if he shot him, but Caxton ordered them not to disobey him. At that moment, the soldiers received a radio transmission from Balalaika warning them about Roberta's presence nearby. Though Caxton was skeptical of the anonymous caller, he was then interrupted by Roberta suddenly jumping onto him, quickly pushing her away. Garcia told the Grey Fox soldiers not to shoot since she was merely unwell due to Diego's killing as well as ingesting too many stimulants. After Roberta was pushed away by the Vysotniki, Caxton ordered Horner and Sanchez to watch over Garcia as he organized the rest of their men to rendezvous with their other squads.[15] Nearby, Revy and Shenhua improvised a plan to kill Horner and Sanchez so they could take Garcia away, but Corporal Zamyatin on the above rooftop shot them in the arm, warning them on behalf of Balalaika that they would be killed next time if they attempted to interfere against the Vysotniki or the U.S. Army. Nearby, Balalaika introduced herself to Caxton over radio and informed him that they would give him cover to ensure his safe passage out of the city. Commending her for her unit's unreal skill, Caxton asked her if she was medically discharged from the VDV, but she clarified that she was discharged in 1989 for violating an international cross-border agreement in order to save a child.[16]
As the Grey Fox team drove in their cars to exit the city, Ray remarked that there was no difference to what was happening that night and years ago back in Vietnam, recalling the 1969 incident with the young girl of the massacred village. Ray remarked that he never got over killing Larkin, but Caxton assured him that he did the right thing in protecting the Vietnamese child, stating that Ray was a real man among corrupt soldiers. Ray thanked him, saying that on that day, Caxton reinforced to him that they should always protect non-combatants even if they were greatly outnumbered.[17] With Roberta successfully cornered into a dead end, Caxton and his men soon boarded Lagoon Company's PT boat (an arrangement paid for by the NSA as advised by Eda) to ride northward on the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle region. Although skeptical of bringing children along, the troops allowed Garcia and Fabiola Iglesias to accompany them.[18] In the anime, the troops boarded the Black Lagoon at the Roanapur port, whereas in the manga the troops boarded the PT boat somewhere on the Mekong River after leaving the city by land.
Once boarding the Black Lagoon, Caxton was delighted to hear that Dutch was a fellow Vietnam War veteran on the U.S. side, but he realized during their conversation that Dutch's answers were inconsistent with the actual battle history of the Brown Water Navy and that he did not understand basic military slang.[19] Before they arrived to the region in the pitch black of night, Caxton spoke with Garcia about the child's plan that Rock had concocted to save Roberta, and the U.S. Army major reaffirmed to his men that they would not kill Roberta despite her adamant pursuit. Defending Caxton, Ray proclaimed to his fellow soldiers that they would fight for justice.[20] Preparing to leave in Zodiac boats to get to land from the middle of the river, the Grey Fox soldiers had Team Echo be the first team to surveil the adjacent jungle while Team Alpha gave commands. When Benny greeted him goodbye before the soldiers disembarked, Caxton warned him that Dutch had lied about his military service due to the inconsistencies in his story. Soon, the soldiers found the area where Shue Yan was filled with various rods several feet apart, which Ray thought were cultural markers of local tribes, but Caxton knew that theory was wrong. As Garcia and Fabiola stayed close to Caxton, they found out that Roberta was holding Shue Yan hostage using a Claymore mine to lure the soldiers to fight her, and she ran into the forest thicket.[2]
In the jungle, Roberta used the tripwires and her musket to attack the soldiers with flechette rounds. With the onslaught against Teams Charlie and Delta starting, Lieutenant Decherd reported about Roberta's attacks from above to Caxton, who ordered all troops except for unit leaders to remove their thermal goggles due to the blind spots from above. Hunting down Team Echo, Roberta then killed several soldiers, including Wright and Gardner. Grabbing Gardner's radiophone, Roberta radioed to Caxton and gloated that she had killed his "foxes." Terrified, Sanchez pleaded with Major Caxton to let him attack, and likewise Ray also pleaded with Caxton to reconsider the order. As Caxton remained silent, Fabiola pointed her gun at him, causing Ray in turn to point his pistol at Fabiola, who sternly asked Caxton if he would side with justice. While Roberta killed both snipers, Garcia and Caxton exchanged a serious look, and the boy solemnly told the soldier that he would continue his fight to save Roberta.[21] In the anime, the soldiers managed to dismember several of Roberta's limbs,[22] but she lost no limbs in the manga despite some wounds.
At the same time that Roberta quickly bandaged her wounds, Caxton radioed her and told her that he would give himself up if she handed over Shue Yan to his men. Although she refused at first and responded that she would never forgive his men, Garcia took the radiotelephone and convinced her to come out into the open to see Caxton. At dawn, Caxton walked with his hands up onto the open plain with Garcia and Fabiola following him, and Roberta saw him. Happy to see Garcia, Roberta commented that she could not tell reality from imagination and that she could take the young master back to the estate after finishing her slaughter. Garcia calmly ordered her to stop her rampage. Suddenly, Garcia pulled out a pistol and shot Caxton in the abdomen, terrifying Roberta since she did not believe that Garcia could kill anyone, in contrast believing that she needed to be the one to kill the U.S. Army major.
As Caxton lied down uninjured due to the bullet being fake, Garcia tried to dissuade her, but she aimed her pistol at him. Seconds later after proclaiming that everything would be fine, Garcia shot her with a fake bullet whereas Roberta shot back and grazed his abdomen. She finally exited her prolonged state of grieving once Garcia kissed her and assured her that she was seeing real people and not hallucinations, and the Grey Fox soldiers who survived the chaos agreed to let her and Garcia return to South America while they took Shue Yan and left Southeast Asia. Hearing that enemy soldiers were closing in on the camp, Caxton ordered his troops not to engage and then ordered Cyrus to help carry the injured Garcia. Before they could leave the Golden Triangle, Raymond McDougal pointed his rifle at Roberta, stating that they should not just let Roberta leave since she killed their comrades. Before he could fire a bullet, Caxton shot him first, killing him. The soldiers and the Lovelace associates then returned to Dutch's boat to travel back to their respective countries, finishing their mission.[23] In the anime's end, Shue Yan's custody was switched over to the CIA's custody and not the NSA's. Moreover, in the anime after his mission, Caxton went to Venezuela to make reciprocal amends with Roberta as well as accompanying two people whose family member was murdered several years ago by Roberta.[22]
Trivia[]
- In the manga, there are a couple of inconsistencies in the soldiers' names. For example, Horner is initially referred to as Sergeant Major Youngblood, and likewise Burroughs is later referred to as Corporal Bowman.
- The name of the unit, Grey Fox, was also one of the U.S. Army's Intelligence Support Activity's many code names.
- The name Gray Fox is coincidentally the code-name of Frank Jaeger, a major character from the Metal Gear Solid series.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 56: El Baile de la muerte Part 13
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 74: El Baile de la muerte Part 31
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 52: El Baile de la muerte Part 9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 49: El Baile de la muerte Part 6
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Episode 25: Collateral Massacre
- ↑ Episode 26: An Office Man's Tactics
- ↑ Chapter 50: El Baile de la muerte Part 7
- ↑ Chapter 53: El Baile de la muerte Part 10
- ↑ Chapter 57: El Baile de la muerte Part 14
- ↑ Chapter 58: El Baile de la muerte Part 15
- ↑ Episode 27: Angels in the Crosshairs
- ↑ Chapter 64: El Baile de la muerte Part 21
- ↑ Chapter 65: El Baile de la muerte Part 22
- ↑ Chapter 66: El Baile de la muerte Part 23
- ↑ Chapter 67: El Baile de la muerte Part 24
- ↑ Chapter 68: El Baile de la muerte Part 25
- ↑ Chapter 70: El Baile de la muerte Part 27
- ↑ Episode 28: Oversaturation Kill Box
- ↑ Chapter 72: El Baile de la muerte Part 29
- ↑ Chapter 73: El Baile de la muerte Part 30
- ↑ Chapter 75: El Baile de la muerte Part 32
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Episode 29: Codename Paradise, Status MIA
- ↑ Chapter 76: El Baile de la muerte Part 33