TEAM 7 - Objective: Hell (second miniseries)
release date: May-July 1995
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Penciler: Chris Warner
Inker: J.D. & Scott Williams
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Monica Bennett
#1: The Wolves
Deep in Cambodia, Team 8 has inserted on a top-secret mission...and been decimated. I.O. decides to try again, so they send Lynch to the prison at Leavenworth to recruit Cray. Lynch figures that if he's got Cray, the other members of Team 7 will also join the mission; he offers Cray full immunity. Cray agrees to the deal, and soon, he and Lynch head into the Nicaraguan jungle. After a lot of hot, sweaty marching and an attack by enemy helicopters (which Lynch uses his powers to destroy) they meet their Sandinista contacts on the ground.
The locals lead them even further into the heart of the jungle, into a region that everyone avoids due to superstition and rumor. When the insects stop chirping and the tensions builds in the air, Cray comments that they must be in the right place. Indeed they are, as they soon encounter the remaining men of Team 7: Callahan, Slayton, Chang, Cash, Dane, and Fairchild.
Naturally, the others (especially Cash) are suspicious, despite Lynch's reassurances that Craven's not in power and the mission is legitimate. They agree to hear Lynch out, if only for Cray's sake.
In Russia, scientists have detected massive amounts of psi-energy; they know that the source is Team 7, and are planning the best course of action. Comrade Rostov assures the roomful of generals and scientists that his people can find and deal with the Americans.
Elsewhere, Team 7 prepares for their mission: to HALO into Cambodia and find a hidden bunker...a bunker that contains hundreds of low-yield nukes. They must find and destroy these weapons - if they can succeed where Team 8 failed.
Cray: "They didn't look like soldiers these days. More like slumming gods."
#2: Deadlands
Deep in the Cambodian jungle, Soviet forces land. The Khmer Rouge locals meet them, and when one of them challenges Rostov, he uses his powers to make the man shoot himself in the head. Elsewhere, Team 7 sails downriver, disguised as locals by Dane's Gen-Factor powers. Cash tells Lynch that they've been practicing, and Lynch realizes that maybe, just maybe, he's not in charge anymore. Fairchild, Chang, and Slayton philosophize about why the team stuck together.
Elsewhere, the Soviet SPBs arrive in the Nung valley. One of the, the woman Silver, scans the valley and is bowled over by mental interference. She tells Rostov that something else is there...something more powerful than their quarry, Team 7.
Meanwhile, the team finds a grisly mass graveyard, a huge pit filled with bodies. Lynch provides some more details on the team's mission. Upriver, the Soviets find evidence of the Americans' passing, and Rostov sends Silver out on point.
In the jungle, Team 7 is attacked by animated corpses! After defeating these foes, they move on, and are then caught up in a whirlwind of uprooted ground and trees. Whatever is causing the carnage, it's more powerful than the Gen-Active soldiers. Cash realizes that the assault gets worse every time they use their powers against it, and he makes the others stop. It works, and shortly, they encounter a young blind girl. She tells them that she's only shown them a fraction of her powers, and that anyone who brings death and destruction to her valley will pay dearly.
Nearby, the Soviet forces move in...
Slayton: "The rest of the world is run by dogs. We're wolves. We run in a pack."
#3: House of Fire
The Soviet forces attack; normal ordnance proves insufficient, so the young blind Cambodian girl creates a monstrous illusion, and then Callahan finishes the enemy off with his Gen-Factor powers. The girl introduces herself as X'ing X'iang; the team retreats with her, leaving Cray and Dane to guard the rear.
While X'ing takes the others to her village, Cray and Dane are beaten back by Silver and Kruchev, two of Rostov's SPBs. Cray is killed, and the scouts move onward as Rostov approaches Dane, who is mourning over Cray's body. Meanwhile, X'ing leads Lynch and the others to the bunker, where they place explosive charges.
Dane blasts Rostov with his full power - and doesn't even budge him. As Rostov begins to wipe Dane's mind, Dane concentrates his power on Cray. Elsewhere, Silver and Kruchev go to battle with the rest of the Team 7 men. Slayton kills Kruchev, with the help of new ordnance: telekinetic whips that spring from his hands. Silver decimates the members of Team 7, but falls at the hands (mind) of X'ing, whose power proves greater and causes Silver to explode. As for Rostov, he wipes Dane's mind clean - just as Cray comes back to life and puts a bullet in the Soviet's brain.
Exhuasted and wounded, the Team takes X'ing and evacs by helicopter.
Lynch: "Still, I can't help feeling this was the first battle in a brand new kind of war. A war without the usual weapons or the usual casualties. Or the usual warriors."
