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 where many American and German tanks advancing through the bridge across to Alena's location. 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 their objective has failed. The mission ends with Sandman relaying the bad news to Command.

Video Walkthrough
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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, as opposed to the Wehrmacht and SS of the World War II-era titles.
 * 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 that the two Leopard 2 tanks seen are not supported by any other German infantry; rather 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.
 * The Player will receive friendly fire warnings even after Granite Team is killed if the player shoots the two friendlies on the road on purpose. However, the player will no longer receive the warning once all of the Russian soldiers withdraw 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 rather difficult, for the player to destroy the two T-90s at the same time using the A-10 strafing run once the two T-90s are coming from the side of the road.
 * Strangely, the friendlies on the road will not fire at the Russian soldiers once the player is no longer able to use the A-10, and they will let the Russians withdraw from the area, though the Russians can and usually will kill all of the friendlies. The player can take out the remaining Russians themselves, however.
 * The A-10 cannot perform strafing runs more than 20 meters 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.
 * Strangely, the weapons Frost wield do not reset or refill after the building collapses. Note that in the same scene after the building collapses during the beginning of the mission before the actual flashback, both weapons are full of ammo, while the ones after the building collapses during the progress of the mission aren't. The weapon the player posses will be kept after the building collapsed, despite the loadout given at the start of the mission.
 * 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 the M4A1.
 * In this mission, the scoped M14 EBR has the ADS speed of an unscoped one. Furthermore, during the animation of aiming down the scope, Frost appears to be looking not into the scope, but through the useless iron sights.
 * 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 rocket, the player can shoot the enemy, killing him, but not saving the Little Bird.
 * A random event occurs in this point wherein the player can be shot by the enemy RPG, dealing a heavy amount of damage just at the start of the mission.
 * Changing the FOV will make Frost's whole body visible without a head when trying 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's title 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".
 * "Scorched Earth" is a military tactic or command that orders all assets or objects potentially useful to the enemy (Such as weapons, bombs, supplies, and sometimes even animals or people) while retreating or advancing through an area to be killed, destroyed, or otherwise deactivated. The title of this mission may be a reference to the term.
 * In this case, the Russians blocked off an entire street with a giant building to deny passage for the German tanks.
 * 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 soldier 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 is 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 is from Onyx Team. The player can see the destroyed Little Bird in the alley, along with passengers from Onyx Team.
 * Via noclip, it is possible to see that the crashed Little Bird model is already on the ground, even before the crash.
 * After the German Tanks cross the bridge, five or six US Army Rangers will appear and take cover behind some barriers on the bridge. These soldiers will have German names, such as Sgt. Bein.
 * It's possible to kill the tank machine gunners outside the lowest floor of the building Alena is in.
 * It is also possible to destroy the tanks with RPGs.
 * If one is to go near the tanks outside the building Alena is in, one will be killed instantly.
 * After rappelling down the building, if one walks a little bit and then turn around, there is a poster of a bakery, featuring a person. The person in this poster is wearing a Delta Force helmet.
 * It is possible to stay on the Little Bird at the beginning of the level. If the player pushes against the helicopter where he was sitting, he can stay on the Little Bird until he jumps onto another building, in which case he won't be able to return to the starting building. It is also possible to stay on all the way to the edge of the map.
 * The Hind that takes Alena away has a unique paint job. Unlike most other Hinds, which are painted with gray camouflage, the Hind in this level is painted with a tan and green camouflage.
 * Trying to jump to the bottom of the building, instead of triggering the scripted rappel cutscene, will result in an instant death that is caused not just due to extreme height, but can also happen due to explosions occurring in the windows of the building. The explosions will only occur when trying to jump off like this.
 * Grinch never physically attaches a scope to his MK14, as it appears to just come out of thin air. The same applies to when it disappears.