Scorched Earth (mission)

"Granite Team is going after the daughter. We're going to watch their backs."

- Sandman to the rest of Team Metal.

"Scorched Earth" is the sixteenth mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The mission takes place in Berlin, Germany, as Delta Force, assigned to rescue the Russian President's daughter from the Ultranationalists. Delta is supported by a column of German tanks from the Bundeswehr.

Characters

 * Derek "Frost" Westbrook (playable)
 * Sandman
 * Grinch
 * Truck
 * Overlord
 * Granite Leader (K.I.A)
 * Alena Vorshevsky (P.O.W.)
 * German Tank Commander (presumably K.I.A)

Plot
The mission starts with Frost looking down at his hands, and soon Sandman comes to help him. The pair starts moving past injured soldiers until they reach a collapsed building, where the screen fades. Twenty minutes prior to this, Frost is on a MH-6 Little Bird, flying into a war-torn Berlin. While flying towards their destination, one of the Little Birds is hit by RPG fire and crashes on the streets below. Frost's ride lands on the roof of a building and Frost and the rest of Team Metal get off and start engaging hostile Russian forces. Once Team Metal has eliminated all threats on the roof, they move inside to the office areas. After clearing the first floor, they ascend the building to reach the second floor. Here they fight off more Russian soldiers before reaching a staircase. This staircase takes Metal team on a rooftop, where the Russians have constructed a makeshift base. After all the enemies here have been taken out, they signal Team Granite to start their assault on the hotel.

At this point, Frost and Grinch provide overwatch to Team Granite. Once all the enemies were dead, Granite team lands on the roof, but then more hostiles appears from the hotel, and the player must take them out with the sniper rifle. As soon as all the enemies were eliminated, Russian tanks arrive and start firing on the hotel. Using binoculars, the player must target the tanks for a strafing run by friendly A-10 Thunderbolts. After all the enemy armor was destroyed, however, Metal Team watched as Team Granite entered the hotel and were killed by defenders.

The player must rappel down the building he (and Metal Team) are on, after Overlord approves of them taking over the responsibility of securing Alena. After landing on the street, Team Metal goes through a back alley, where they meet the remains of the dead Team Onyx, until they reach the river bank, where they assist the German tank column to repel enemy Russian forces on the main street. Frost then destroys a Russian T-90 using an RPG-7 and Team Metal moves up the street with the German tank column. However once they reach the end of the street, a building rigged with explosives detonates, sending the building crashing down on the American and German forces.

Soon the player regains consciousness and wakes up in exactly the same place he had started the mission. He then follows Sandman through the ruins of buildings, until the hotel is visible across the street. Team Metal battles Ultranationalist troops as they advance into the hotel and up flights of stairs to rescue Alena. When they reach the room Alena is being held in, they prepare for breaching. But before they can, the door explodes, sending the player to the floor. Frost takes Sandman's pistol and kills two Russians. After recovering from the explosion, the enemy helicopter takes off with Alena on board. Grinch tries to take a shot, but Sandman stops him, saying that they failed their objective. The mission ends with Sandman relaying the (bad) news to Command.

Video Walkthrough
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Found in level
The following weapons can be found with or without attachments.

Unobtainable
The following are found in level but cannot be kept or picked up

Intel
thumb|300px|right|MW3 - Intel Locations - Scorched Earth - Mission 1437. Once dropped off by the helicopter, head into the first building and find the intel on a cubicle dead ahead.

38. In the same building, find the intel on the roof just behind the fence near the AC units and some short stairs.

39. After rappelling down the building, high tail it for the bookstore. The intel is easy to find on top of the cash register.

40. During the segment where Frost follows some tanks, locate the Teknik Deutsch building on the left side of the street. Head inside the lobby and look for the intel location over by the elevators.

41. Inside the second destroyed building is a bar, and the intel is on a couch underneath the stairs in this area.

Achievements/Trophies
Bad First Date (10 / Bronze trophy ) - Complete "Scorched Earth" on any difficulty.

This is the End (25 / Silver trophy ) - Complete "Scorched Earth", "Down the Rabbit Hole" and "Dust to Dust" on Veteran difficulty.

Nein (20 / Bronze trophy ) - Kill 9 enemies with A-10 strafe runs in "Scorched Earth".

Trivia

 * In the cutscene before the level begins, Alena Vorshevsky's last name is misspelled as "Vershovsky".
 * This is the first campaign mission in the entire Call of Duty series where the encountered German Army is friendly to the player, as opposed to the Nazis of the World War II-era games.
 * There are three Bundeswehr Leopard 2 Tanks named Vorschlaghammer (Sledgehammer), Zerstörer (Destroyer) and Blutertragen (Blood-Born). Blutertragen stays on the bridge, and is eventually destroyed if player stalls a while for taking out T-90 but Blutertragen will survive if player destroy T-90 before it fires to Blutertragen. Vorschlaghammer could also be a reference to Sledgehammer Games, one the game's designers
 * Sandman calls Alena "Athena," which is actually Alena's codename for the operation, due to the fact that HVI's names are never given over airwaves.
 * This is the last mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 that the player plays as Frost or in Delta Force.
 * The way Frost looks at his hands in the beginning of the level and before the flashback shares similarities with two characters in the Call of Duty series. The first was Dimitri Petrenko when his hands were burnt from the singed wood when he tried to move it in the level "Vendetta". The second was James Ramirez when he saw his cuts on his hands after the helicopter crashed in Washington D.C., USA in "Of Their Own Accord" and "Second Sun".
 * Oddly, it seems the two Leopard 2 tanks seen are not supported by any other German infantry. What makes it even more strange is that they are supported by American infantry.
 * After the building collapses, Grinch is wearing a Ranger uniform, rather than his usual Delta uniform.
 * When marking targets for the A-10, there are four friendlies on the road that are not part of Granite Team. It is unknown how they got there, and they can be killed without being given the friendly fire warning after Granite Team is killed.
 * Player will be received friendly fire warnings even after Granite Team is killed if player shots two friendlies on the road on purpose but player will no longer receive friendly fire warning once all of Russian withdraws from the road.
 * After the German tanks are destroyed and before entering the destroyed building, a dead Delta member that wears Metal's uniform may be found.
 * It is possible but very hard for player to destroy two T-90's at the same time using A-10 strafing run once two T-90's are coming from the side of the road.
 * Strangely, the friendlies on the road will not firing to Russian foot soldier once player was no longer be able to use A-10 and they will let the Russian withdraws from the road while player can take out the remaining Russian.
 * The A-10 cannot perform strafing runs more than 20 metres long even if Frost marks a target longer than that
 * The objective to use A-10s to clear the road will be failed once all of friendlies on the road have been killed.
 * Before and after the player provides overwatch for Granite Team, Grinch can actually be seen attaching and later detaching a sniper scope from his MK14.
 * Strangely, the weapons Frost wield do not reset and refill after the building collapses. Note that in the same scene after the building collapses during the beginning of the mission before returning to 20 minutes earlier, both weapons' ammo are full while after the building collapses during the progress of the mission, they are not refilled or even reset and the weapon remains the same as before the building collapsed.
 * This is the only mission where the ACR 6.8 is usable in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 campaign, in contrast to the ACR's extensive presence in the Task Force 141 missions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, much like C4.
 * It is possible for the player's weapons to glitch during shell shock when standing near the tank when it fires and, despite being out of shell shock, be stuck with the sound of the gun during shell shock until the building collapses.
 * This is the only level in the game where the player doesn't actually breach a room when told to and takes a friendly unit's pistol out of their holster.
 * Before the helicopter is shot down by an RPG the player can shoot the enemy, killing him but not saving the Little Bird.
 * Changing the FOV will make Frost's whole body visible without a head when they try to breach Alena's room.
 * In the destroyed building, one can find a sledgehammer on the floor. This could be a reference to Sledgehammer Games.
 * On a couch in the lobby of the second destroyed building, there is a teddy bear.
 * The PMC's spawn theme is heard during this level.
 * If the player goes to the far end of the building (Near the beginning of the word "Reisdorf" on the roof) after Granite breaches the room, it is possible to see one of the members who did not get cut down by gunfire stand there and not fire.
 * There is a crate with an emblem of Shadow Company on the roof of the destroyed office building.
 * This mission is a reference to a quote made by Joseph Stalin in World War II when he said, "We will make Germany nothing but scorched Earth."
 * If there is an enemy soldier present once the player reaches the top of the stairs of the building after they landed and with Sandman ahead of them, Sandman will charge up to the solider and push him off the building instead of firing at him.
 * After the breaching sequence at the end of the mission, the player's view has zoomed in massively.
 * One of the German Tanks can be seen in the destroyed building.
 * The Little Bird that had been shot down by RPG at the beginning of mission was from Onyx Team as the player can see a destroyed Little Bird in the alley, along with passengers from Onyx Team.
 * After the German Tanks cross the bridge, 5 or 6 US Army Rangers will appear and take cover behind some barriers on the bridge, however they have German names such as Sgt. Bein.
 * It's possible to kill the tank machine gunners outside the building Alena is in on the lowest floor.
 * If you go near the tanks outside the building Alena is in, you'll be killed instantly.
 * After rappeling down the building, if one walk a little bit and then turn around, there is a poster for a bakery. The person in the poster has a delta-force hemet on.