Violence and tensions along the U.S.-Mexican border have never been higher, sparked by battles between rival drug lords and an increased flow of illegal migrants. To combat the threat, the U.S. has executed Operation Rampart: a controversial test base in southern California run by Major Jason Richter and members of Task Force TALON.

But their success is thretened by a drug kingpin and migrant smuggler named Enrique Fuerza, and the Mexican president, a nationalist who causes a storm of controversy on both sides of the border, calling for a revolution to take back the northernmost "Mexican states"-the southwest U.S.

Soon Richter and his force are reassigned to the FBI to investigate the murders of several Border Patrol agents-a deadly mission that will set off a wave of bloodshed that threatens to become an all-out guerrilla war.