Surviving the Apocalypse

Second Dawn

For 4 weeks every man and woman capable of constructing anything were put to work improving the infrastructure of the 5 Camps now that the Recon unit had moved to the area where Depot Oscar was. They now called it Recon Base Oscar, utilizing the satellite uplink to the secure military assets across the Nation to reestablish connection to the command structure of the military. Hanna used her own credentials as the Commanding Officer of their Alliance, the system informing her that her Command Authorization had been activated the first day of the Outbreak. She was also the highest ranked officer to establish emergency communication with it, her orders to restart any kind of civilization possible but whatever means possible.

Surprising her, was that before the President lost contact with the system, he had authorized her promotion to General if she survived and ever discovered the system. As the most distinguished graduate of Command Strategies and Tactics, they had felt if she survived she would be the best bet to actually save whatever was left of humanity. She knew it because of the personalized letter left in the digital archives, her in ox filled with reports of emergency stockpiles as well as remote access to weapons that she didn’t know if she ever wanted to use them. Nuclear weapons would be a double edged sword, that would kill zombies and people alike. Especially if she used a bunch of them, which is what it would take to eliminate most of the zombies in one swoop of the sword.

Just as she was finishing with this system for the day, her own system buzzed an alert that their airspace was being violated. She grabbed the radio and keyed in the military command frequency that all military hardware should be monitoring under these circumstances. It was on passive mode, so it likely didn’t know it was being tracked yet.

“Aircraft at 37 degrees north by114 degrees west, you are entering a restricted airspace. Identify your purpose in this zone or be considered hostile. Over “ she said releasing the button on the mic as she waited for a reply. For 10 minutes she hailed the chopper that was flying into her territory, allowing it to make it 20 miles inside her zone before she activated the SAM sites that would automatically lock on and launch a pair of missiles at it.

It did so within seconds of going active, all 5 of the stations painting it with active radar that was challenging it on the IFF system the military used. It never once sent any reply of any kind before the 2 missiles slammed into it at 15,000 feet in the air. By the time it crash landed, there wasn’t anything left of it bigger than a deck of cards for them to find or recover. Only one of the crew managed to bail out, his panicked flight landing him in the middle of a small town that was swarming with nothing but zombies.

Immediately after it went down, her radio came to life as she realized that someone had indeed been listening while she spent minutes trying to communicate with it. “Who the hell do you think you are?” the man’s voice demanded over the radio angrily.

“I think I am a military commander defending my base by any means necessary, as instructed to do so in orders that I received directly from the President. I attempted contact on frequencies all civilian and military pilots are required to monitor, informing them they would be considered hostile if they did not respond. Once they were determined to be hostile, appropriate responses to eliminate that threat were taken. Over.” She replied evenly with a hint of a grin on her face as she imagined the person on the other end of this conversation was wondering how in the hell she had operational SAM sites in the first place.

“What base are you in command of?” came the demanding reply.

“Authenticate authorization: challenge, sparrow.” She replied as it was the proper response with no communication from command.

“What the hell is this garbage?” The man demanded getting even angrier.

“Proper restoration of command structure in the absence of communication from the office of the President or Military Command. Authenticate, Challenge prompt, Sparrow.” She replied.

“I don’t have time for this crap, we are sending another chopper to recover our own assets. Any further-“ he said before Hanna cut him off.

“Any attempt to enter this restricted air space without proper authorization will result in the same outcome. We will destroy any aircraft attempting to enter this airspace.” Hanna replied to an angry shout from the man who was cursing unintelligibly into the radio.

After several minutes of silence, another voice came onto the line. “Authorization Gamma 571286 Epsilon. Challenge: Hummingbird.” The voice said confirming it was indeed someone within the reestablished communication protocols.

“Authorization Alpha 272596 Omega.” She replied while confirming her command authority exceeded the person she was speaking with. His own check revealed she was in fact the highest ranking officer in the entirety of the old armed forces now. She however knew that it was very concerning that this person happened to report directly to Lieutenant General Paxton.

“Request authorization to enter restricted space to retrieve mission critical personnel from a Camp within your zone.” He said formally.

“Denied, all commands are ordered to cease all support and communication with members of Second Dawn.” She answered without hesitation as she informed the man she was essentially declaring war against the organization that most of the bases left intact followed without question.

“Unable to comply with order.” He said simply.

“Understood, your access is hereby revoked and all personnel under your command expelled as traitors.” She replied removing his access to the systems that would allow them to utilize the military weapons that he had been trying to arm and target her location with. She revoked all of the people who were listed as under command of Paxton with a simple order to the system. She could imagine what they were thinking at this moment as they tried to do the same thing to her that had ended her life the last time. “All communication between this Command and any Second Dawn assets is hereby terminated forthwith. Any attempt to enter our territory will be seen as an act of aggression, appropriate response will be taken automatically without notice. You have been warned.” She said into the radio before she shut it off and walked away.

It didn’t take long for her to be summoned back to the communications room, the yelling from one person she recognized the voice to emanating from the speakers in a tone that said he was used to getting exactly what he wanted. Kenneth Paxton had verified his position in the communications system, the automated command system verifying that by order of the President before communications was lost, that she had the ultimate authority as General of the Army. The position meant that she was in ultimate command of all armed forces that swore the oath. She grabbed the mic and held the transmit button before she moved it close enough to the equipment it created a squeal that drowned out every noise being transmitted. She held it for 10 seconds before she removed it, the blessed silence filling the room.

“Now that we aren’t throwing a temper tantrum, who the f**k do you think you are yelling at my people like that? If you hadn’t already been stripped of your command authority I would bust your ass down to private for acting like that in public.” She declared over the open line of all Command Stations who were listening in. Especially since she had locked down the weapons systems at all bases so tight that without her command codes they were really expensive paperweights.

“I am Lieutenant General Kenneth Paxton, assigned by the President to lead the response against the zombies. Who the f**k is this?!” he demanded.

“Ah Lt. General Paxton of the Second Dawn, I would say it is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, but we both know it would be an absolute lie. Orders issued by the President on day 1 of the outbreak that placed you in charge of the military response were rescinded just before the President lost communications with the system. His last act was to name Colonel Hanna Storm of the Combat Strategy and Tactics Division as General of the Army, that would be who I am. Men under your command have attempted to launch weapons at me, in response all access to those weapons is hereby rescinded without direct authorization. All Commands are to follow my orders as authorized by Congress and the President. Anyone not following those orders, is declared a traitor to humanity with their execution set upon capture.” She said evenly. “Now, as you are the commander of those Second Dawn forces, you are hereby ordered to cease all experimental operations, reveal the location of all Second Dawn bases and assets, as well as capture or kill any personnel from that terror organization immediately.”

The reaction she got from that statement was exactly what she thought it would be, as he exploded in a nearly incoherent tirade about not knowing what the hell she was doing. So, she repeated the process of creating the feedback for another 10 seconds before she spoke again.

“That wasn’t a question Paxton, it was a direct order from your superior officer. The only words out of your mouth will be yes ma’am, and you might get lucky to find yourself spared from being fed to the very zombies you helped create. Anything else will be considered you abandoning your oath and treason as you are activing well outside of the best interests of humanity and your nation.” Hanna told him.

For several moments there was silence on the radio as she pulled up the base where he was contacting her from, the silo’s on it containing 5 Nuclear Warheads that she armed with a simple command from her station. Without any command codes above her recently verified, the system considered it a direct order from the Commander in Chief.

“You have declared war against me, as what I am doing is what is best for humanity. This just goes to prove that we must evolve if we are to survive what is coming!” he exclaimed.

“Very well Paxton, since you and those men following you are deserters and traitors, you are hereby sentenced to death. May God have mercy on your souls.” She said before she pressed the button that would detonate them in their silo.

“You don’t stand a chance of ever-“ he said before the blast cut him off as he screamed for a fraction of a second. The plume created from the detonation was visible in space, the warhead nearest to the site covering the entire base in a fireball that sent radioactive dust and debris hundreds of miles in all directions. Everything within 10 miles of the blast itself, was incinerated in seconds as the temperatures easily reached 20,000 degrees Centigrade.

“This is General Hanna Storm, all military personnel are hereby informed that the Second Dawn is a terrorist organization responsible for the viral outbreak that has caused the current situation. Any participation with them or communication with them, will be strictly prohibited. Anyone in violation of that order, will be deemed a traitor to humanity, and executed as a threat to dangerous to be left alive. For those who lead and command Second Dawn, you are hereby commanded to surrender. We will end this nightmare you have caused, and we will capture and execute you one way or another.” She told those still listening to the broadcast before she put the microphone down.

“Why not just use the nukes to eliminate them all at once? We do have thousands of them now.” Lucas asked her.

“Because instead of a zombie infested wasteland that we can clean in a couple decades at most, we would be creating a radioactive one that would take a couple thousand years to dissipate enough for humanity to survive. That was a demonstration, especially since Paxton was the one giving them legitimacy until now. Now the officers from the military must make their own choice, knowing full well what the consequences could be. Plus, now they will abandon any of the bases where there are nukes that can wipe out large swaths of their people. The satellite images showed there were at least 12,000 personnel there. As Paxton only had 4,000 soldiers under his direct command, we have to assume that he was using it as a staging area for the Second Dawn.” She told him so he would understand.

“Why do you think the President put you in charge of the entire Armed Forces?” he asked nervously.

Hanna smiled as she knew that answer, which started years before the outbreak. “He was impressed with my demonstrations at the Strategy and Tactics competitions while I was an Mansfield. More than once everyone believed my strategy was doomed to failure, only to come out as the ultimate victor after eliminating all other contestants. My record is perfect in those competitions, something even the President commented on during the last celebration when they brought in the actual best of the best in the military. It is that way because I don’t just regurgitate what I learned in a book. I analyze why it worked that way, create rules and systems to be able to implement those systems in other environments, and adapt to counter strategies as quickly as they can make those changes. Simply put, I am the best asymmetric strategist in an environment where traditional tactics and strategy have completely failed.” She told him as Lucas’ eyes went wide.

“You actually met the President?” he asked.

“13 times actually. 6 as the winner of the Tactics and Strategy Competition between the military academies, twice for obtaining the best overall scores in the Combat Competition, teams and individual. The other 5 when my school won the Academic Competition with myself and a upper class man as Co Captains.” She said patting him on the shoulder. “Didn’t think I was the youngest Colonel ever for no reason did ya?” she asked as she walked away from the communications room.

On the other side of the world, 9 men sat at a table on a private island, watching the plume from the single detonation rise over 30 miles into the air. It had completely leveled a large part of their military hardware, weapons and equipment that would be extremely difficult to replace now. Each one of them had heard the exchange, their records pulled from all public sources from the days leading up to the collapse of society. They were looking at those very achievements, but also seeing the one line that changed their outlook on ever being able to recruit her. Especially if she had learned enough that she had now eliminated two Generals that were loyal to their cause.

“How does she even know we exist?” the man that led them demanded. “If she is so good to be named the General of the Army after all communication was lost, why did we not try recruiting her?!” He yelled at the others sitting there.

“Sir, she just barely graduated from Mansfield Academy two months prior to the outbreak. Plus, it was decided that because of her father, we couldn’t approach without risking extreme exposure.” One of the 9 answered. His only identified was 7, the 4 stars on his shoulder indicating he actually led the military arm of the Second Dawn.

“What exposure would that be?” 1 asked.

“Hanna Storm is the daughter of Marcus Storm, his temporal reset ability an issue we forced himself to commit suicide over. A suicide she unfortunately walked in on just as he pulled the trigger. General Ramon Storm believed she knew about the Second Dawn, as well as our involvement is his death.” 7 answered.

They pulled up her class scores as well as her commendations and awards from the Military Academies she had always attended. Her rank of Colonel not honorary, as she had earned it and more when she had passed the Command Assessments for every rank including General. The only thing preventing her ascension was time in service as well as combat tours, but at just 19 years old, it was something that she would have easily handled as her first assigned station was supposed to be 4 days after the outbreak. It would have been her first Combat Tour station, which with what was happening she might as well be in.

“How could we allow this to happen? She would have been an invaluable asset.” One commented shaking his head as they all realized that this one girl could be the difference between success and failure. Especially since they could see her competition scores and commendations year after year for unique strategies and tactics that utterly decimated the other competitors that had to face her.