{"sf1_id":209650,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Weapon - Blooming","author":"Damaged","words":2304,"posted_at":"2011-01-03T08:34:00.000Z","tags":["Bad Language","Fox","Military","Violence (Not In Yiff)"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/209650-weapon-blooming","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/209650","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=209650\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#4 of Weapon","content":"More coming, this is the meat of the story right here :)\n\n* * *\n\n\"Yes, get out of here, enjoy the city a bit, damn it I have to put up with these secret service goons, you might as well have a quick break. This mornings meeting is only preliminary anyway, nothing will be decided by the Secretary of Defence until tomorrow.\" The General ordered me, \"Now GO!\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Ok Sir, but I don't have to like it.\" I replied.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Go for a tour of the city, meet some people, just... stop being a soldier for a day. Ok?\" He pleaded.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Ok ok!\" I left the apartment telling the secret service guys they could go in, poor bastards look so wound up and tight, guess it comes with the job.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI jumped in the car and typed 'tour' into the GPS, it gave me a ton of tour operators, I closed my eye and stabbed out at random, the GPS started giving directions. \"Hold on, hold on, not even started this damn thing yet.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI would like to say it was a nice drive, but with the influx to the cities population, sections of the city being cut off due to the talks AND it being a Monday, well, traffic sucks.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nEventually reached the tour operator and was told the next bus was leaving in a half hour, I opted to wait.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nSome people were gathering and we were just about to board the bus when it happened.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nA bright light lit up the morning, much brighter than the sun, and a fraction later the sound hit, louder than you could imagine, it almost knocked me off my feet.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nPeople were screaming around us, no one knew what was happening, but when I looked toward the centre of town, the mushroom cloud was a dead give away.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Oh fuck no.\" I heard myself saying, running to my car, I tried to start the thing but it was dead, quickly checking a hunch, so was the GPS.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe fact I wasn't dead and the rest of the city flattened was an indication that this was a strategic weapon. Throwing that fact with the likely-hood that whoever did it wanted to get all the eggs in this basket I realised there would have to be either further bombs or teams on the ground to round up strays.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nLooking around I spotted what I was after, an old Volkswagen van, still belching its nasty black diesel. Obviously a diesel.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nRunning over there was a guy in the front seat, \"Sir, I need to commandeer this vehicle.\" I told him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"'The fuck?\" He replied, but I already had the door open and was pushing him across the seat.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"US Army, I need-\" And suddenly I realised I had absolutely no idea how to get back to the apartment. \"Look, I need you to help me get to the army apartments west of the air-force base?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I, I know the place. What just happened? Why do you need my car? Uh, just what are you?\" The questions came fast, I started driving.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Some high level government and military talks just got bombed. This is the only thing that will be able to run because of the EMP blast. And, I am an officer of the United States Military, I need to find my commander, he can sort things out.\" I fired back to him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Uh, left here.\" He said, \"Then strait down this road.\". I was weaving around cars and using the pavement rather liberally, it wasn't a smooth ride, but it was faster than walking. \"Hey, you were that soldier from the testing thing a year ago or so ago weren't you? I remember that. Shit well if its this bad ma'am I am glad to help out. Names Rick by the way.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Nice to meet you Rick, mines Anita.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe drive was going smoothly, figuratively speaking, I recognised the area, we were a block away.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI could just start to hear the automatic weapons over the sound of the engine. \"Shit, is someone shooting down there?\" The guy asked.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yeah, don't worry, I got this.\" As I pulled up half a block away, I saw a van idling out the front of the apartment building. \"Ok, you stay here with the car, please don't drive off, we will need your car again soon.\" I told him, I considered taking the keys, but didn't want to stop the car, in case it wouldn't start again.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI advanced down the road, removing my sidearm from my bag. I just noticed the guy with the machine gun around the corner of their van in time. I left him where he dropped, and checked the vehicle, it was empty.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAdvancing on the premises, I heard further gun fire inside, first the full automatic staccato of sub-machine guns, then some blasts of pistols. Obviously the secret service guys were not just there for their looks.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nMoving quietly up the stairs to our floor I found two more assailants, one pointing his gun down the hall at our door, the other preparing a grenade.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWaiting for the man with the concussion grenade to pull the pin, I removed his hand from the wrist, the grenade dropped to the floor still cradled in the man's severed grasp.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI ducked back to avoid the effect and came back after the blast, finishing off the injured guy and disarming his companion.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir!\" I yelled down the hall, \"Was this it?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yes Walters, there were two out there.\" The secret service guys left the doorway glaring down the sights of their guns at me.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI breathed a sigh of relief when The General followed them out.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I have secured a civilian vehicle, we could take theirs, but that would be a little conspicuous.\" I told him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Hold on Colonel.\" And he ducked back inside returning with the briefcases he had brought, opening one he pushed his papers aside and removed a pistol, which he holstered. Opening the other revealed a stripped down M4A1 with its SOPMOD kit. \"Take your pick Walters.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Aww Sir, you really know what to get a girl.\" I said with a grin, assembling the rifle and attaching the front hand hold, sound suppressor and a laser sight from the goodies the standard field kit provided.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nGrabbing the magazines that were in the top half of the case, I pocketed three of them and drove the fourth home. \"Ok, you two keep close to The General, I will take point, if you see anything unusual, yell. The vehicle we are heading for is a rust and brown coloured VW van, the owner is in it, he is alone. Lets move.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI lead the way down the stairs, watching for any further threats. It seems either all the other tenants were out or were lying low to avoid what was obviously a bad situation.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBack out on the street, I saw the van still idling down the road, I made to lead us to it when my reflexes took hold. I deflected the snipers first bullet, realising now my error in not putting a scope on the damn rifle. \"Move!\" I yelled.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"But there's a sniper out here.\" One of the men said. But was overruled by Ruggers who was already doing as I said, I am glad to be working for smart people.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Keep together and move, I got us covered.\" More shots were coming toward us and the bullets were travelling faster now, the guy must have switched to supersonic rounds.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"This is fucking insane, he won't keep missing forever.\" The black clad guard said.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"He will if I have anything to do with it.\" We were just at the van and the general was in, I climbed in behind him. \"Hey Rick, you do the driving, I got to concentrate here.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Where we going ma'am?\" He asked.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Just get us to Andrews, we can work out what to do from there.\" The General said, the guy looked at me, so I just nodded trying to keep track of the direction of the sniper to deal with any 'small problems'.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWe reached the base to find it in a mess, no one seemed to know who was in charge.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir.\" The senior duty officer, a Lieutenant Colonel Ricks started, once we had identified ourselves, \"We got no idea what's going on, all senior officers are at the talks, we are on skeleton crew. Hell I am the highest ranking officer here, err, until you arrived, Sir.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"First things first, did the 89th get off the ground in time?\" The General asked him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"What, I don't...\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Did the 89th get Airforce One off the ground soldier?\" He repeated.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir, the President never arrived, we don't know what's happening.\" The out of his depth officer told us.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Fuck.\" One of the secret service guys said.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Ok then, get me a line to the White-house bunker, and I need satellite images of the city as of the last ten minutes. NOW SOLDIER!\" He ordered, yelling when the man didn't move fast enough.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"You got this?\" I asked the secret service guys, indicating the protection of Ruggers.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yeah.\" They replied. Tight arsed bastards or not, they had done their job.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Good, I am going to see what I can do to smooth things along.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nStopping to ask some MPs where the comms area was, I let myself in.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Who the fuck are you?\" One of the men inside asked me.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Colonel Walters, US Army. General needs some satellite images of the city just after that blast, can you get me anything?\" I explained.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sorry sir, I should have recognised you, Yeah we can get that.\" He reached over and grabbed a tablet, punched a few buttons on his terminal and unplugged the device from his console. \"Ok, this has it all, you know how to drive it?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yeah, thanks\" I replied, leaving.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"No problems Sir.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI made my way back to where General Ruggers was by following the debris of chewed out soldiers.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFinally catching up with him I handed him the tablet. \"Thanks Colonel.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI saluted, \"No problem Sir.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Find yourself a uniform, or at least some fatigues, can't have you running around like that all day. Its going to be a long one, might want to try and scare us up some coffee.\" I know he hated to ask me to do that, but I knew he was also somewhat distracted and needed something to help him focus. Thankfully I didn't have to try and hunt down a pot, a Lieutenant handed us both a cup. \"Good work soldier.\" The General told the young soldier.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir!\" The man turned, about to return to his duties.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Wait, what's your assignment at the moment?\" I asked him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Uh, Sir, I on kitch-\" He began.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"No your not, you have been re-assigned. Follow us around, and anything you think might help, let me know, there's so much shit going around we could cover every propeller in the country.\" I told him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir!\" He saluted.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe General was just finishing up a hurried phone call, \"Ok, I need an immediate press conference, I want the major networks told it will be required to go live on every station. I need sweep teams to check any other dignitaries last known locations. And soldier?\" I finished, turning back to our 'new recruit', \"If you find me another cup of that I will promote you on the spot.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir!\" The man was already running, smart kid.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of the United States of America. Today a tragedy has been inflicted on our country. At approximately ten forty five am, a small nuclear weapon was detonated near the White-house. Those responsible simultaneously attacked other high ranking officials all over Washington and the United States.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nNow I realise the action I am taking is unprecedented and, by our constitution, unlawful. But I cannot in all conscience allow this act to succeed in beheading this nation. Until a more senior officer or a member of the senior cabinet I will be heading up our response to this action.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIntelligence has revealed that this was not the act of a single nation, but a coalition of several hostile terrorist groups.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nConsider the 'war on terror' to be escalated. I will not cease until those responsible have been dealt with and their supporters punished.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI think we can all agree that this is not an ideal situation, it is certainly not one I intend to have continue for very long. In three months time, unless a civilian chain of command has been re-established, I will stand down and a full election will be held.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThank you for your time. Know that I will not let this country fail.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Ok, we are done.\" The camera man said.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Well fuck, that's the hardest speech I have ever been called to give. Colonel, I want you drawing up plans and strategies for the known locations, you will not be a part of them, but consider yourself completely free to use any resources our armed forces contains, baring nuclear weapons, of course.\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Sir.\" I said, realising I would need a whole lot more coffee myself and that sleep was going to be a rare thing over the next three months.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}