Atlas Reloaded - Book Five of the Damned of the 2/19th

Puzzle Pieces

I sighed.

"It's also capable of killing you even if you don't do anything wrong."

I slapped it and launched into my "Site-317 AKA Atlas" blah blah blah speech. Pointing out the nuclear bunkers, informing them that the site had been lost for over 15 years before we'd found it last year, informing them that over half the bunkers still had dangerous munitions in them that apparently we'd have to destroy on site since the German government had determined the munitions too unstable to move on German roads. I discussed the fact that the engineers had to fix the railway, build a railhead, and carve a road out to the new railhead, in addition to replacing most of the buildings and several bunkers, flipping the map over to how Atlas would look when they were done.

Once I was done I stepped back. "Any questions on the physical makeup of Atlas?"

There was just headshakes.

From there I moved on to the mission. Reloading literally every bunker, replacing all the ammunition from the smallest .22 subcaliber bullet to the big honking Tomahawk missile warheads and rockets. Then refilling all the fuel tanks, then adding new gear for completely outfitting all of the units that arrived.

I went into the timing, how long we had to complete the mission, what was expected of us, and possible problems.

When that was done I stared at them.

"The big thing is, we'll be doing this literally under the eyes and guns of Ivan. He's across the 1K Zone, he's got two HiND helicopters, a bunch of armor, and a few SCARAB missile launchers to keep us honest," I told them. "Right now, they know if they so much as touch me I'll come across the 1K Zone and butcher them all, but as soon as they get a new GRU and KGB guy out there they might decide to try poking me."

"Hope they made out their wills," Harvey mumbled.

The guys turned and looked at him and he shrugged. "Let's just say, the good Corporal here isn't a man to try to push around."

"Indeed," the CIA agent said, touching his bruised nose and wincing. He grinned ,exposing the fact he was missing two teeth. "He shoves back, and hard."

"I'll be honest, I've got enough to deal with when it comes to the ammo and equipment," I told them. I sat down, took a drink off my lukewarm coffee, and lit another cigarette. "I'd rather not play rooster with any of you. I'd rather you coordinated with me, did your jobs, and we all went home."

I leaned back. "Honestly, if you get in my way, there's a chance that we could miss a step and this whole place, and a mile and a half in every direction, vanishes straight up its own ass in a thermonuclear detonation."

The Transportation officer gave  a low whistle.

"How many of you received any orders beyond: Show up at Atlas and report to the NCOIC?" I asked, flicking my ashes.

Everyone just looked at each other and I sighed.

"I'm going to find whoever is responsible for this shit and strangle them like they're a fleet week hooker," I snarled. I drained my canteen cup of coffee and slid it to the side.

"All right. Let's start figuring out who should be in charge of what and who has operational command and responsibility of what. My men won't be back until tomorrow night, and I'll be leaving right afterwards for Bremerhaven, so we don't have long to figure shit out," I told them.

"You sure you can move around all that ammo on time?" The transportation officer asked. "If you want me to be able to move the trailers, I'll need about three times the tractors I've got now."