PW: Task Force Atlas: Reunion
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2017 4:43 pm
Lieutenant Colonel Jack Rogers
Undisclosed Location
2/13/20XX - 01:11
Jack Rogers was bathed in the glow of several large monitors that hung on the wall. The lights were off, mainly because the overhead lights added to the heat of the room. The air conditioning was on full blast, and it was still almost eighty inside. There were two reasons for that. The first was the fact that it was almost a hundred degrees outside with a humidity of something close to one-hundred percent. The second reason was sitting in the back of the room.
Several server towers were in the back, and they produced a surprising amount of heat in the stuffy, cement-walled room. This was the main room and the largest room of four. There was a doorway on the left wall that led to a small bedroom, a small kitchen/pantry, and an equally small bathroom. On the opposite wall was a heavy steel door, which lead to a cement stairway up to a cement landing and another steel door, which led to outside. The only indication this location was even here was the small cement outcropping above ground with the door and a healthy crop of antennae and satellite dishes.
Rogers was just in running shorts, leaning back in a rolling chair. His grey hair was matted and slick with sweat, as was the rest of his body. He'd been sweating before his late night workout routine, but now he was properly soaked. As per his usual routine, each monitor in front of him was tuned to a different news station. He'd watch each one for a minute or two, reading the tickers before moving to the next monitor. Rogers would continue this for the next hour before showering and hitting the bunk for a few hours of sleep before starting the next day. The highlight of his day was the workout if he was honest, since it was the only thing that kept his 54-year-old form in the condition it was in anymore.
The news, as per usual, was sensationally negative, but it had seemed even more so lately. There were several various countries in the news rather than the usual one or two. The news usually revolved around a coup, a dictator, or some other destabilizing action or oppressive leader. Almost every night, now, it seemed that another nation had fallen apart or was having troubles. But that wasn't what had really gotten to him.
Jack still had access to all the old files. They'd been backed up at the server farm here before the shutdown, so even though the files were erased everywhere else, this location was still safe. Because of that, Jack was able to put the pieces together. About two years ago, he had shown his face for the first time in the news, using an alias he'd used before as a chairman of a charity which he funneled money from to fuel his movements. The Prophet was still alive, and over the past two years, he'd built quite the public face. A year ago, he even entered into politics. He had charities, corporations, NGOs, and now governments feeding out of his palm. He was essentially a rock star. His bodyguards, which had been glanced on cameras. Jack recognized Archangel, the leader of Task Force Logos and his lackeys. So every night, Jack watched the news, his soul burning as he watched the Prophet shake hands with world leaders and captains of industry, slowly expanding his influence. Every night, Jack entered more names into a Deck of 52 file he kept on the computers.
Every night, Jack looked at a program titled Begin_Recall_TFA and thought of how this had all come to be...
Five years ago, Task Force Logos attacked Task Force Atlas assets at Outpost Training Camp #3 in Chitzeland. The personnel at the base were slaughtered and the base was left abandoned. The Hurti government, annoyed at this embarrassment, took Outpost Training Camp #3 back. That put Task Force Atlas on high alert, and forced them to redistribute forced. A week after that, Diego Garcia, the second-largest Task Force Atlas base was attacked in a surprise attack in concert with smaller attacks at Firebase Amethyst, Firebase Valkyrie, and Firebase Echo. The smaller firebases, monetarily forgotten in the attack on Diego Garcia, were devastated in the attack, losing several personnel in rapid hit-and-run attacks.
Diego Garcia, however, was by far the most devastating attack. While several personnel had been killed in the attacks, the attack culminated in a nuclear explosion in the harbor, destroying the majority of the international fleet that had been assigned to support TFA. The TFA units that were at Diego Garcia rallied and fought back, eventually repelling the assault, but the losses were staggering. While nobody knew it yet, it marked the beginning of the end for Task Force Atlas.
Governments that had previously supported the unit and their work began to pull support and assets. Relations soured. Some governments went so far as to claim the nuclear blast was TFA's fault. The downward spiral didn't stop there. Task Force Atlas was in several instances deemed a threat to global security. They'd grown too large, governments had said. TFA had acquired too much power and had no oversight. They were a danger. And it was with that, ultimately, TFA was outlawed, its existence deemed illegal by several governments in the world.
The bottom dropped out from everyone. Elite units were called back to their respective nations. Diego Garcia was shut down due to the radiation as well as the damage. Firebase Alamo, Firebase Amethyst, Firebase Echo, and Firebase Valkyrie were all mothballed and shut down, their assets being seized by the nations that officially administered them. The Organized States withdrew their open invitation of TFA at Fort Bragg. Aircraft and vehicles were seized and confiscated. The surviving ships of the fleet that supported TFA were called back and redeployed by their home nations.
Jack was redeployed to teach at a special forces school in Neu Engollon for a couple years. Jack had grown tired of the position however, and applied for an extended leave. Normally, this wasn't allowed in the Remnant Military, but Jack Rogers was somewhat of a legend, and he was able to persuade his superiors into accepting it. That's when he went looking for this server farm, because he knew that's where the information had to have been backed up to. By the time he'd gotten here, there wasn't even the skeleton crew that should be manning it, but the guards who'd left had done just what he'd assumed, they'd let the equipment run, which was a good thing. Jolly moved in with enough supplied to last him as much time as he needed to guard over the information. It still didn't solve his main issue, though: Task Force Atlas...
All the hard work they'd done had been erased. Everything was gone.
Everything except for this site. It didn't have a name, but Jack referred to it now as "home." The site, which had once been a simple backup server farm, was now everything that remained of Task Force Atlas. Once again, Jack's eyes were drawn to the black screen with a single line of text that read Begin_Recall_TFA and wondered what should be done.
"Don't."
Jack looked up. Her voice was rare anymore. She didn't have a reason to talk much. Usually, she worked to keep corruption out of the TFA files as well as fend off the cyber attacks, both by governments trying to access the files they knew still existed, and by evil entities trying to do the same. The attacks were becoming more infrequent as people realized that TFA was no longer relevant. One of the screens that was holding news stories had been replaced by what looked like a video feed, but Jack knew it was just her avatar. She had chosen to keep it, and her appearance hadn't changed in the last six years.
"I.. Don't know what you're talking about." Jack tried to click off the window on the laptop, but he knew he'd been caught.
"You look at the program almost every day, Jack. I know what you're thinking. And I can tell you it's not worth it. TFA's operation is illegal. Starting that program would make you a criminal, as well as anyone who answered the call."
Jack sighed. She was right, as she always was. Self-Aware Learning Intelligence. SALI, both an acronym and a name. Sali was an artificial intelligence. The director of Task Force Atlas had created her using completely confidential means, but after her creation, she'd been the primary technical manager of the task force. She even tried to keep tabs on the scattered surviving operators of TFA, even though several had been killed over the years. Luckily, she'd been transported here to this facility as TFA was being shut down, and as far as Jack knew, nobody really knew she existed. Even most of TFA assumed she was just a pretty application rather than an AI modeled after a celebrity who'd died in a plane crash. From what Jack knew, she was the only one that had been made, whether that was for better or worse.
"What do you expect me to do? Sit here and watch? I know you watch the news, too, Sali."
Sali's avatar frowned. "I do. I see what's happening. But we have to watch. We can't do anything. Not until the time is right."
A touch of anger edged into Jack's voice, "And when will the time be right, huh? Everything was in vain! The Prophet is stronger than ever, and there's a hundred more just like him now!"
Sali pursed her lips together and was about to respond when something caught her attention and she looked into the distance, "We have an issue. Perimeter breach."
Anger was replaced first with surprise, and then his mind settled into a place that he hadn't been in for a some time. "Camera feeds?"
Several monitors that had news channels were replaced with camera feeds of outside the site above ground. They were sub-par cameras, not even night-vision ones, but in the dark, he could make out shapes moving near the front door. Definitely people. Definitely uninvited. He couldn't tell how many, but there were at least more than one, meaning Jack was already outnumbered.
Jack jumped out of his seat and moved towards his room. "Sali, keep me updated, I gotta get ready."
"Of course."
Jack got into his room and opened his closet, he quickly threw on a pair of canvas pants and a tee-shirt. It never hurt to be clothed in the middle of a home invasion. Next, Jack pushed aside the clothes of his closet to reveal a gunsafe set into the back of the closet and dialed in the code to pull it open. Inside, he pulled out web gear and threw it on, loaded up with a couple magazines of ammunition and pulled out an old R11 Pistol and threaded on the silencer. In addition, he grabbed an R18 Assault Rifle and made sure it was loaded and charged. He switched the safeties off both weapons and slipped the R11 into the web gear's integrated holster. In the middle of him checking his weapons, he felt and heard an explosion. Jack looked up, stopping for a moment.
"They blew the outer door," Sali reported. "I can see them moving down the steps now. I count... Two... No, three. Three incoming. They're at the door outside."
Jack didn't respond, all he did was leave his room and stare across the small server room at the door that the enemy was outside. Jack felt at his webgear and found what he wanted; a flashbang grenade. He clipped it off and moved over to a server tower, standing against it. In his hand, he used his thumb to pull the pin from the flashbang and held the spoon. All he could do now was wait.
It only took about fifteen seconds before he heard it, a small explosion marking the intruders blowing the locks on the door. Jack peeked around and saw the door move. He let the spoon pop off the flashbang and counted out two before tossing the grenade and wrapping back around the server tower, closing his eyes, covering them with his arm, and then holding his mouth open. He heard a yelp of surprise and then a deafening pop, made all the louder due to the enclosed area. Jack backed around the server tower, rifle high and trained on the door. The intruders weren't as slowed by the flashbang and as he trained his weapon on the door, there was already someone standing in the doorway, their silhouette showing a weapon in hand. Jack didn't hesitate to let loose a trio of rounds into the figure and the figure went down quickly. On either side of the two, Jack saw two barrels come around and begin firing, forcing Jack to turn around the server tower, which began to take fire. He could hear circuitry snapping and sparking as bullets embedded themselves into the equipment.
Jack put his rifle back around the server and fired blindly into the doorway, hoping to hit something despite that being unlikely. The firing stopped, and Jack brought his rifle back to drop a magazine and put in another from his web gear. Jack peeked around at the doorway and saw nothing. It was a waiting game, now.
"Is that the famous Jack Rogers in there?"
Jack didn't recognize the voice, but found it odd that the guy behind the door decided this was a good time to talk. Jack didn't respond and rather waited.
The voice continued, "Listen, Rogers. We don't want you. We were sent here for the information stored here. You could give up, walk out, and let us have what we want. You live, we live, it all ends swell."
Jack nodded, thinking over the proposition. "Fuck off."
There was a pause, "So be it."
Jack could hear movement on the other side of the door and tried to peek around, his eyes registered movement, but a shot forced him back. Jack knelt and lowered himself to the ground, quietly setting his rifle on the ground and slipping his pistol from its holster. Jack readied himself into a crouch and leapt out from cover, sliding along the cement ground, pistol aiming up. His eyes locked on one figure and he began to fire, snapping off a trio of bullets before he turned his gun to the figure beside it, getting off two more bullets before coming to a stop. Jack rolled back onto his feet and switched to a kneel, his pistol aiming at the two still figures. Neither of them moved, so Jack moved to them. The one on the right he'd got three bullets at had been unlucky. One bullet had caught him in the eye and killed him instantly. Jack moved to the one by the doorway, who had caught several rounds to the chest, and he wasn't wearing a vest like the first one had.
Finally, the one on the left. Who was still breathing, his vest had caught a round, but another had hit him in the neck. He was holding his wound, but he was bleeding out. Jack stared down at him and the man opened his eyes to stare back, not even attempting to go for the pistol Jack saw on his thigh.
The man nodded, giving a grim smile, "This isn't over." His voice was the same one who'd tried to talk Jack into surrendering.
Jack shrugged, his pistol hanging ready at his side. "It is for you."
The man chuckled, but it quickly turned into a cough and blood sputtered from his mouth. The round had hit deeper than Jack had thought. "You should've let us do our job. We don't give a fuck about you anymore, old man. We just want the personnel files."
"They're safe with me."
Another bloody cough and the man's body shuddered. "Not forever."
"For now." Jack raised the pistol and fired a round into the man's forehead. He shook his head and let out a sigh as his adrenaline began to settle. He was getting too old for this operator shit. Jack looked around, holstering his pistol and going to retrieve his rifle, "Sali, anyone else out there?"
"No. But I think we can say the location is compromised."
Jack slung the rifle over his shoulders and pressed his lips together in a smile, "Yeah, maybe. Start burning everything. Every non-essential file and system, kill it. Back up everything else into the go-pack."
Sali waited a second to respond. ".. And me, Jack?"
Jack looked at the moniters at the front of the room, walking towards them. He knew she could see him from cameras in several of the screens, "You're coming, too. I just need to do one thing before I go."
"Jack, I think-"
Jack got to the laptop and looked back at the screen, "I don't care. It's time we did this. You can't talk me out of it. Not after this."
"I was only going to say that I think you need to do it."
Jack smiled and opened up the filed titled Begin_Recall_TFA
Begin Recall Y/N? Jacked took a breath and hit the Y-key.
Processing.... Beginning Recall.
The screen went black before a series of contact files came up, their status going from "deactivated" to "activated" as the program flicked through them.
The program was contacting every Task Force Atlas member and reactivating them. This call wouldn't be quiet. Everyone would hear it and would be given the chance to respond. Word would spread, for good or worse, that Task Force Atlas had been reactivated. Some would hopefully come to rallying cry, but Jack was sure there would be those who would be waiting to go after the organization for breaking international law and coming back online. Jack didn't care anymore. They had to do what was right, and this proved it.
Jack went to the back of the room and pulled a cover off a server tower. Inside was a laptop-sized drive that could hold up to an exabyte of information. Most of that space was reserved for Sali's programming, which was worth the development of a relatively compact system to transport her. Jack looked up, "Ready to go?"
"Yes. Disconnect... Now."
Jack slide the storage device from its port and picked a bag up that sat beside the server. The servers went silent as he dismounted the drive, meaning Sali had made a kill order when she was disconnected. Everything in the safe room would be wiped, though he guessed there'd be fragmented information left if someone felt like digging through it. He slid the drive into the bag and shouldered it. Sali would just have to sit in there until he could put her back in somewhere.
A vibrating caught his attention and he went to the satellite phone on his hip as he stepped over the bodies of the dead invaders and walked up the stairs.
"Jack."
"Jolly? What the fuck did you do?"
Jack recognized the voice. "Lennox?"
"I got the call. What happened."
"I'll tell you later. I'm kind of in a bind right now. Bugging out."
"Do you need a lift?"
Jack reached the top of the steps and left the building, "You can do that?"
"I... I have a few resources I've been building up. I've been expecting the call, Jack."
Jack nodded and stopped moving for a second. "Okay. Where are you?"
"Don't worry about that. I'll send you coordinates to be at. Be there in six hours. I'll have a ride for you."
"Okay..." His phone vibrated and he glanced at the screen, a notification bar with coordinates came up, which would be about a four-hour walk through the jungle from where he was. "How did you know where I-"
"Because you wouldn't go anywhere else."
Jack shook his head and laughed, "Alright. What about everyone else?"
"Anyone who got the call should know how to access our portal online. I'll leave coordinates for pick-up points as well as my current location and heading."
"Heading? You're moving?"
"I've collected some big resources, Jolly. See you soon."
"Yeah." Jack clicked off the satellite phone and patted his backpack, "Alright, Sali. Let's go rebuild Task Force Atlas.