The Tyrant Squad had wiped out an entire American platoon in seconds.
But the cost of that overwhelming victory was obvious.
The firefight had awakened the entire base.
Air-raid sirens screamed through the night.
Brigadier General Talbot was jolted awake by the alarm.
He sat upright, listening for only a moment.
There wasn’t supposed to be a nighttime exercise.
Which meant only one thing.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
He threw on his uniform at record speed and yanked open his quarters’ door.
"Oof!"
He immediately collided with someone rushing toward him.
Looking up, he recognized his aide.
The young officer hurriedly helped him regain his balance.
"General! I was coming to wake you. I didn’t expect you to already be up."
Talbot brushed him aside and strode toward the command center.
"What happened?"
"The base is under attack, sir."
"A hostile force infiltrated the perimeter."
Talbot’s pace faltered.
His mind had raced through countless possibilities while dressing.
Fire.
Gas leak.
Equipment malfunction.
Even a false alarm.
An attack hadn’t been one of them.
This was a military installation on American soil.
An entire division was stationed here.
Someone had attacked it?
For one absurd instant, Talbot wondered whether World War III had begun.
Then another possibility struck him.
"What was the target?"
"The Special Storage Facility, sir."
"...Damn it."
Talbot broke into a run.
The Special Storage Facility wasn’t just another warehouse.
It contained nearly every significant artifact recovered from Hydra after World War II.
Most were dangerous relics of a bygone era.
Some remained beyond the understanding of modern science.
If the attackers had come specifically for that warehouse...
This was no ordinary raid.
The command center was already in chaos.
The chief of staff and several operations officers stood around tactical maps, analyzing the situation.
Technical personnel struggled to regain control of the surveillance network compromised by the hackers.
Telephones rang nonstop as officers checked the status of units across the base.
Talbot stormed through the doors like a hurricane.
"Attention!"
The chief of staff barked.
The room instantly fell silent.
Everyone stood.
"At ease."
Talbot waved the formalities aside.
"Report."
One of the operations officers stepped forward.
"General, we’ve been infiltrated by an unidentified force estimated at twenty to thirty personnel."
"They compromised the base’s primary network through electronic intrusion."
"They seized control of our surveillance systems."
"They silently eliminated sentries at multiple checkpoints."
"They then advanced to the Special Storage Facility."
He paused.
"Using vehicles as improvised fortifications..."
"...they completely destroyed the platoon dispatched to investigate."
Talbot slammed a fist onto the operations table.
"Damn it!"
"Current situation?"
"The two companies assigned to warehouse security have engaged the enemy."
"A reserve rifle company is standing by."
"Commit them."
Talbot’s voice left no room for debate.
"I want this battle over immediately."
His anger wasn’t simply tactical.
A military base housing an entire division had allowed a small strike force to penetrate straight to one of its most sensitive facilities.
The humiliation alone was intolerable.
Fifteen minutes passed.
The gunfire never stopped.
Instead, it intensified.
Talbot stared toward the tactical display.
"What the hell is happening?"
His frustration was obvious.
The original security force, combined with the reinforcing company, amounted to nearly a reinforced battalion.
Against barely two dozen infiltrators...
The fight should have ended long ago.
The operations officer immediately contacted the frontline commander before relaying the latest report.
"General, enemy combat effectiveness greatly exceeds expectations."
"They possess large quantities of high-explosive grenades."
"They’re equipped with general-purpose machine guns firing tungsten-core armor-piercing ammunition."
"Our forces consist primarily of standard infantry companies."
"The assault is progressing slowly."
"The frontline commander believes victory is only a matter of time."
Talbot let out a cold snort.
"Of course victory is only a matter of time."
Nearly four hundred soldiers against barely twenty enemies.
Losing wasn’t the concern.
The real question was...
How many Americans would die before that victory arrived?
He made his decision.
"Deploy the armored units."
"I’ve waited long enough."
Tanks and armored fighting vehicles would crush the defenders far faster than infantry alone.
"General."
A voice interrupted him.
Colonel Woods, the base’s chief of staff.
"I disagree."
Talbot’s jaw tightened.
Having his orders interrupted irritated him.
But Woods was his second-in-command.
Ignoring him outright wasn’t an option.
"Go on."
Woods spoke calmly.
"The infiltration itself tells us a great deal."
"They penetrated our surveillance network."
"They passed through six checkpoints."
"They eliminated every sentry without triggering an alarm."
"They’ve demonstrated exceptional combat capability."
He looked directly at Talbot.
"Those aren’t the skills of ordinary terrorists."
"Frankly..."
"I’m not convinced even elite mercenaries could execute an operation like this."
Talbot immediately understood where the argument was leading.
"You think they’re a state-sponsored special operations unit."
"It’s a strong possibility."
Woods nodded.
"Launching special operations against strategic military targets before a larger conflict is a well-established doctrine."
Talbot hesitated.
He couldn’t deny it.
The United States had employed precisely those tactics in the past.
And this enemy had displayed a level of professionalism rarely seen outside the world’s most capable special forces.
Woods continued.
"A reinforced battalion against fewer than thirty attackers."
"They’re trapped."
"They’ll lose eventually."
"Our priority should be strengthening every other critical installation."
Talbot narrowed his eyes.
"You think this is a diversion."
"Not necessarily."
"They may genuinely be after the warehouse."
"If so, they’re already contained."
He paused.
"But if they aren’t..."
The implication hung in the room.
Suppose another strike team was waiting elsewhere.
If Talbot stripped the rest of the base to reinforce the warehouse...
A second force could drive straight into headquarters and decapitate the command structure.
The risk was impossible to ignore.
After several long seconds, Talbot slowly abandoned the idea of deploying the armored battalion.
For now.
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