Surviving the Apocalypse

New Developments

Hanna took what Crystal said to heart, taking the time to finally inventory what the Army had stockpiled in the warehouses that the President had insisted she had built. What surprised her was that one of them was filled entirely with point defense systems that would make the base all but impenetrable from the air. It had three different missile based intercept systems against other missiles if even Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that was designed to intercept the warheads in space. It also had the Israeli based Iron dome system as well as one it called the Iron Beam that was a laser based system using 600 kw lasers that could shoot down anything from a cruise missile to a drone at 1,000 miles. The enhanced radar systems were state of the art, all of it she knew she was about to deploy. No matter what they had to do to increase power generation, as there were a dozen of the lasers that made up the system. None of it was anything close to what she was expecting, especially as it included the extremely classified instructions on exactly how to make them, including the instructions for the rocket science they would need in order to properly use the systems once they depleted the arsenal of weapons.

As soon as she walked in to the second warehouse she was even more amazed, as it was filled with parts and equipment needed to build dozens of drones and the control systems that could be automated or used by a pilot for enhanced dogfighting capabilities. The warning of the nuclear signature leaked her interest, especially as she didn’t see anything with a nuclear tag on it at first glance.

When she began loading it all into her storage however, she found the tiny box nearly hidden away, the power signature coming from it was off the scale however until she read that it was a miniature fusion reactor that was still extremely experimental and highly classified. It however produces enough power for her to reactivate the entire city, when she was ready for it. In the meantime however she knew it would be more than enough to power the Camp, even with the new systems that used more power than she imagined.

The third warehouse impressed her even more as it was stuffed full of all sorts of tech that made the civilian counterparts look like kids toys. The server alone held 6 different automated control systems that she knew Nathaniel and the AI were going to go nuts over when it increased their server capacity by 100 times while taking up a 10th of their current setup. When she found the radar station, she knew missiles would never be an issue again as the President had included a class 8 military radar that could even see stealth craft, and was capable of tracking 10,000 targets at a range of 7,000 miles. Her base would be a major big red beacon to the entire world, but with this kind of firepower she knew she was a powerhouse that couldn’t be challenged. Especially when she realized all the equipment she needed to connect into the complete national weapons network was located in this warehouse.

When she returned to Camp Hope after lunch had ended, she called Peter, James, Nathaniel and Melissa into a meeting as everyone else was needed exactly where they were for the moment.

“Nathaniel, do we currently have space for a server rack that is 25 feet long, 2 feet thick and 7 feet tall?” she asked him without preamble.

“The length is a little tight, but I think I have the spot for it. What kind of processors are we talking?” he asked rubbing his hands together until she handed him a packet of technical specifications that was 200 pages thick that covered every one of the systems installed on it as General Montgomery came in.

“What the hell is this?” He asked as Hellen sat next to him and read the acronyms.

“Helios, Phalanx, Golden Dome and Beam, Patriot, Aries… Those are all military anti missile systems made for everything for sidewinders from a jet to Intercontinental interceptors that would include nuclear weapons. Where the hell did you find these?” she asked Hanna pointedly.

“The President left them in the warehouses over the bridge. I just went through and found a bunch of things we need. Peter, how long until we have the shaft going to the surface?” she asked him.

“I can have it done in a week.” He told her as she nodded.

“Excellent, make it a priority. Nathaniel, I will be delivering the server and a bunch of other stuff for you to get connected to our systems. Make sure Grave doesn’t go to haywire. It has never been exposed to this kind of system before.” Hanna warned him.

“James, I need somewhere that is probably close to 2,500 square feet for a military command and control center. What do we have in the bunker?” she asked as both he and Peter smiled.

“The cave in revealed a cavern that is 3,800 square feet and has a 15 foot ceiling. It is actually where we are making the shaft to the surface as well. I could have it roughed in within 10 days of getting the plans. Final touches has to wait until we have the boring machine back inside and out of the way. Maybe a month before it could pass a white glove.” James answered making Hanna and Hellen laugh.

“So long as the dust doesn’t screw up the computer systems, I don’t care about white gloves. Once everything is up and running that will be Nathaniel’s department.” Hanna said with a smile as he protested.

“Now wait just one bloody second here. I already have enough on my plate.” He said indignantly causing everyone to laugh.

Hanna looked at him with a smile. “You do realize those 12 people that work in tech with you, actually report to you as their boss. Right?” she asked him as he had his lightbulb moment. “Yeah, even if you have a student apprentice actually do the dusting, I am going to thank you for it if I notice. It is your job to tell the actual person good job, the boss noticed.” She said shaking her head as the others present chuckled.

“So that’s why I have to deal with all these meetings when I just want to bury myself in the work?” He asked complaining as an idea struck him. “Does that mean I can delegate these meetings to someone else?” he asked suddenly excited.

Hanna shrugged. “That depends, a status update on that server install in 3 days time, absolutely. So long as whoever you send can ask any off the wall questions like the integration of the Military Program and monitoring into the AI system we utilize. Meetings like this that are suddenly called for the leaders? Unless your elbows deep in critical repairs that can’t be delegated because no one else has the ability to do the work, no. That goes for all department leaders, especially if the work you are doing could be considered critical.”

“So when you assign me a task, you don’t actually expect me to do it myself? I just have to make sure it gets done properly and up to snuff so to speak.” He clarified.

“Correct Nathaniel, as I understand it there are 50 people in the tech staff that actually do the work of keeping us operational. When I say you need to install the laser systems, radar antenna and all the server clusters and equipment, I mean your department. You decide who does what, and face the music if it goes sideways. Not, s**t runs downhill, I fully expect you to give that chewing session to the person responsible, just like when I tell Pamela the strawberries are wonderful right now. I don’t know who grows them, harvests them or anything else, not is it important enough for me to find out. I expect her to tell the person the strawberries I liked that I said to keep up the good work. Or when I tell James he needs to fix a fuckup in the electrical. I don’t care who did it or gets their ass chewed for it, so long as it gets fixed.” Hanna explained as everyone else kind of chuckled.

“Kid, you remember her telling me about the problems with the new barracks in sector 4 the other day? How those needed fixed before we moved on with construction?” James asked him and he nodded. “Remember that ass chewing I took about poor quality and craftsmanship like that being thrown out of the construction teams?”

Nathaniel looked at him and nodded. “I thought it was a bit extreme.” He admitted.

James laughed a little. “It wasn’t a personal attack against me. Before that conversation, I hadn’t been within a couple hundred feet of Sector 4. Hadn’t even seen the construction before that ass chewing. Absolutely no way it could have been me. But I am the boss of 500 construction personnel that has 15 projects under active construction. I haven’t seen probably 10 of them so far, and most likely won’t see 5 of them before they are finished. That ass chewing I got, was delivered word for word to the crew who did do that work. Probably with a little more thrown in for good measure before they were made to fix the issues themselves under supervision. You are the tech expert, delegate what you don’t want to do or don’t have time to do. Pat them on the back probably more frequently than we here at the table will, deliver the bags of s**t to their rightful owner, and move on with your day.” He told the kid.

“Well this will make my life so much easier. Is there a pay and promotion scale that is for each department, or what?” he asked her.

“No, but it is an intriguing idea.” Melissa said as everyone shrugged.

“It is something we would need to discuss with the full leadership, but I have no issues with establishing a pay scale based on the position and actual work done. The way it is set now was actually done in a moment of desperation and just worked for those loops. If we need to enhance it, we can most certainly do that. How you run your departments is up to you, especially as we will do nothing but grow as we clear more of the city. Especially at the rate we are currently achieving.” Hanna said as the teams had cleared another 2 blocks that afternoon while her squad was on afternoon drills because of her schedule.

“I will consult with the leaders and devise a system that accommodates our current size and is easily expandable.” Melissa answered for them.

“Back to the topic of the systems, some of them are could bring major attention to us. Attention we may not necessarily want yet.” Hanna told them.

“The radar is going to be a dead giveaway, unless we can reactivate the strategic command system and tap into the entire nation at once. Than it will just be noise in a sea of reactivated stations.” Hellen said as Hanna smiled.

“That will have to wait until the new Command and Control center is built. Once we have the space for it built to the specs and design by Nathaniel, we will install the computer equipment that was in one of the warehouses.”

“Just dump more s**t onto my overloaded plate.” Nathaniel said as Hanna got an evil grin.

“Uh oh.” Peter said.

“Oh Nathaniel, since you asked for a nice big healing portion, you may want to review those requests for transfers into tech. I have parts and equipment for about 100 different drones in storage now. I want designs and prototypes for them as quickly as possible.” Hanna said as he groaned and put his head on the table.

“And that is why you are always careful about what you wish for. Sometimes, you just get it.” Hellen said making them laugh as Nathaniel banged his head on the table.

“I want a raise.” He said lifting his head to more laughter from everyone at the table.