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SWAT

Your job as a SWAT trooper is to listen to your Sergeant. Full-stop. His orders are to be followed, even if the president disagrees.

He is the commander of an elite team of counter-terrorists. Listen. To. Him.

Whether that be to shoot, flash, or simply report to a location.

Do it.

This guide will only help if you encourage COMMUNICATION between you and your team.

COMMUNICATION is key!

Now that we've got that bombshell out of the way, let's talk about how you - as a SWAT Sergeant - can turn the freshest faced of trigger-happy dumplings into an elite, disciplined and quick-thinking team, held together by a concrete bonding of trust, tactics and resentment for criminals.

As the title implies, we're going to be talking about how you should prepare and organise your team for the following:

HOSTAGE SITUATIONS

We'll be discussing how to train your team for these situation as well as how to actually undertake a live hostage-rescue. Lets begin!

TRAINING YOUR TEAM

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend you read through the first guide in the SWAT series; HOUSE CALLS. You'll find a lot of reference to this guide throughout both the training and live-situation sections.
Now, when training your team, it's important to make sure they are very compliant with trigger discipline. Run the course as many times as you see fit to guarantee that no-one will compromise a live-situation. When running this course, it's best to assign two destroyable props to two external factions:
Hostage(s) and Insurgent(s).
Personally, I like to use watermelons and the breen-busts, colour coding them accordingly.

Spoiler

Then, you should teach your team how to use the BREACH technique we learned back in the RAIDS chapter. Only this time, the breacher should use a lockpick, we'll discuss why further on. Again, this is where communication is key. You should assign someone (though I prefer to assign myself) to 'Flasher'. This unit will be responsible for throwing a well placed concussion grenade into the room containing the insurgent(s). You should also teach your team a way to stack-up without having to speak, i.e; using "act halt" or "act forward". Silence is key. If the insurgent hears a SWAT team stacking up, the hostage is in a lot more danger. Then, comes the test of accuracy. Though probably exaggerated on the course, you need to ensure that your team can precisely take down the insurgent (melon) without any harm coming to the hostage. The extremely close proximity to which the hostage would be to the insurgent compensates for the fact - that - the insurgent (melon) and the hostage (bust) cannot move after the flash grenade, where as an actual fact, this would most likely be the case in a live situation. Once you're happy that your team can silently operate like clockwork, all you have to do is wait...

LIVE SITUATION

Now, we move on to the real deal. The first thing you want to do, is have a passenger in a responding vehicle find out what building (if any) at the '%l' call. To find out how many insurgents and their correlated faction is also a very good idea.

Once you arrive on the scene, allow any of your team that were lagging behind to catch up and re-group. This if for the exact same reason as detailed in the RAIDS guide. When all of your team are present, you should:

1 - IDENTIFY A POLICE NEGOTIATOR

This is ridiculously important. You need to know that someone will be speaking to the insurgent(s), therefore keeping their attention. You should tell this Police Officer to stall them as much as possible, but while giving positive answers to their demands. For example;

"Organising that amount of money will take some time, but my Sergeant's already organising something with the banks..."

This way, they are of the belief that their demands will be met and that the Police are at their mercy. You should also tell the Negotiator to negotiate through a window on the side of the building that has no entrances/exits. This allows you to move somewhat freely around the property.

1b - GAIN POLICE COHERENCE

Make sure you and the Police understand each other. Ensure that the Police Officers on scene are holding a cordon around the building, stopping any external parties trying to enter while keeping themselves away from the property. Be polite and never talk down to the Officers. They need to know they can rely on you in emergences.

2 - IDENTIFY POINTS OF ENTRY

Find a back door, garage, whatever you can. This is where your gut-feeling and judgement is very important. You have to estimate the safest entry point on the property. If there is only one point of entry, then you shouldn't worry about using a lockpick anymore and you should alert your team to this too. Make sure to stay out of any Insurgent LOS while reecing the building.

3 - STACK-UP

Again, details will be on the RAIDS guide. Get your team in position on the safest POE and get the breacher to commence the lockpicking. Once the door is open, you should crouch through the property until you get adjacent to the Insurgent/Hostage room. None of you should vocally communicate from this point up to until the flash grenade detonates. Remember to stack your team up against the doorway leading into the hostage room too. You should be safe to use a ram at this point.

4 - FLASH

Your assigned 'Flasher' should chuck the grenade in as soon as the door opens. Typically, the Insurgents won't have time to react or won't even notice that an assault is in progress. The negotiator should still be talking to the Insurgents.

5 - SWEEP AND CLEAR

Clear out the room as fast as possible, following the BREACH technique. Once the room is clear and the hostages in relative safety, assign the 'Flasher' to escort the hostage out via. the entrance route. The rest of your team should then sweep every room in the property, in-case of any hidden insurgents, contraband or otherwise.

Well done, you just executed one of the most risky procedures in Police Textbooks!

Remember to congratulate your team, the negotiator and thank the Police for their assistance.

Call for a paramedic if any of your team has been injured.

After this, you can return to your base of operations with a smug smile and even better - a reputation.

News travels fast in EvoCity, and a hostage sweep performed to the Tee will strike hesitance into the minds of any would-be criminals.

Thanks for reading.

Excellente Guide !

Oobrie

Cunix