Chaos reigned supreme as Bear Platoon prepared to rotate out of Old Chicago. Logan was doing the initial inventory of all of the unit's explosive ordinance and related gear when Sgt. Dansk approached him and said
"Pvt. Wright! Grab your armor and get suited up in the back of this Sky Lifter. I just got word that you're getting requested by Bull Platoon 2-3 for a patrol. Intel came down an hour ago about a building that is booby trapped that supposedly used to hold nuclear materials, which is why High Command doesn't want to just flatten the building with an air strike. You'll get briefed en route." Logan looked at the corporal from supply who was helping him conduct the inventory, now scowling at him like it was Logan's fault that he was getting assigned somewhere else. Sheepishly, he hands the corporal the clipboard, before breaking into a run toward his locker to retrieve his armor, then double timed it outside to the waiting flying armored personnel carrier.
Logan started suiting up with the help of other people two other people whose names and ranks he didn't pay attention to as he was standing in front of Captain Jordan, who said
"Good to have you aboard, Private Wright. I personally requested you for this mission because I have heard how good you are." He simply shrugged at the compliment like it was no big deal, which caused the captain to squint at him and try to figure out if Logan was merely trying to act out of place.
"Continuing on," the captain drawled out,
"We've known for a while that Loyola University in Chicago did research into nuclear science during the Golden Age, but a couple of hours ago, we had found out that some Feds had discovered the secret location of a workshop where they were experimenting with nuclear weapon systems. The only two pieces of information we know of for sure, is the location of the building, and the fact that the Fed is sending a surgical strike team to get everything that they can." The captain turned on a holographic projector showing aerial composite scans of a building that were taken with regular cameras, IR cameras, as well as radiation sensors.
"According to recon scans that we had gotten by way of robots, we suspect that if this building was in fact the site of a nuclear weapons workshop, we suspect that it is in a sub-basement as the radiation levels surrounding the building don't indicate anything out of place."
Turning off the projector, the Captain said
"Our orders are first and foremost, confirm the presence of nuclear weapons, and what types are there. Secondly, in the even that nuclear weapons are discovered, we are to retrieve them. Any questions?"
"Yes, actually. What if there are nuclear weapons but we are unable to move them for whatever reason. How do we proceed then?" Logan asked.
"By removing the nuclear components themselves, and planting explosives to destroy the rest of the device, but only after documenting as much of the design as possible. The nuclear material will be placed in this case for storage and transport." Jordan said, indicating to a silverish hard case with shoulder straps. By this point, Logan was fully suited up in his armor and he could feel a change in the APC's momentum as it came in for a landing so that the soldiers could disembark. Finally looking at the rest of the squad, it was apparent that they were fairly experienced as the lowest ranking person, other than him, was a sergeant. The doors opened with a snap hiss, and they filed out, each covering a different direction before hustling off to a safer area.
With practiced grace, the lock on the door is easily picked and the enter the facility without any problems. After searching for fifteen minutes or so, they find a stairwell that leads down into the basement, which they post a guard at the top and follow the stairs down. Three flights down, the bottom level is filled with water that is shin deep. An old Golden Age mechanical security door was jammed shut, so Logan looked at some scans he was taking of the building as they were making their way down there and said
"That room is pressurized with negative pressure, lots of it by the looks of it, but I should be able to create an entry point for us one level up."
Following Logan's lead, they back track to the previous level where Wright finds the sealed air conditioning ducts for the heat exchangers. Since the area was hermatically sealed, the only way to keep it cool was to run water through a sealed set of pipes that go into the level past some fans which blow air past the pipes, the cold water would then proceed to cool the air down. The pipes had burst further up, having been subjected to years of Chicago's brutal winters, but the panel in the floor in the boiler room was still secured tight, but was thinner there than the door the floor below. Logan set a charge and blew the panel, causing it to implode and suck him right into the hole.
The next thing that he knew, three members of the team were scanning the area as he lay on his back in a new setting, the captain and the team's corpsman stood over him tending to his injuries.
"What happened?" Logan barely makes out, and the captain fills him in.
"The crate you had hid behind was far lighter than anyone had thought, and it had a short length of rope attached to it that must have gotten wrapped around your leg. causing you to follow the crate." the captain says. He helps Wright stand back up and gather his gear before making their way into the workshop area itself. Their Geiger Counters begin spiking and one of the other members of the team says
"Shit man, I hope my dick don't start glowing green after this mission."
"The only way for that to happen is if you paint it green, or wear neon green glow in the dark rubbers." Wright informs him, causing everyone to turn and look at him, causing him to elaborate.
"The whole irradiated items glowing green was an American Hollywood myth based on the fact that during the early years of the Atomic Age, many places would coat tools that had been exposed to radiation with bright, typically neon green paint." Logan starts walking forward when offhandedly says
"Besides, your far more likely to develop cancer in that area, as well as produce mutated offspring, if you can still reproduce!" Everyone glances at Logan once then to the corpsman who meekly nods in agreement, causing the other three non-comms to cover their crotches with their hands for a moment until they realized just how futile that really was.
When they finally enter the workshop area, they find a nine foot long cruise missile with the warhead opened on one side, and by the looks of the, the nuclear core had just been placed inside the sphere of explosives that served to start the nuclear chain reaction when the apocalypse caused the facility to be abandoned Logan took several scans of the weapon while starting his cybernetic eyes to start recording video of what he was seeing.
"Sir, the radioactive material in here seems to be an unknown element as scans are showing that it is definitely not plutonium or uranium." The rest of the team had secured the area and Logan was able to confirm that was the only nuclear weapon in there, however there were two other radioactive cores which were placed in the case they had brought with them.
"Remove the warhead and let's get the hell out of Dodge." Captain Jordan had said, which had turned out to be easier said than done. The warhead was firmly stuck to the missile, and even the two heavy weapons soldiers who were wearing the CS exo-skeleton armor couldn't get it to even begin to turn.
At that time, a loud clang had echoed down the stairwell and into the hole that Logan had created to access to level, which was followed by a scream that ended with a wet gurgle. The captain looked to the rest of the group and said
"I'm guessing that missile is too heavy for us to move it, huh?" before getting on the radio and calling in their situation saying
"Blackhawk 2-1, we have contact, over." Looking back at the group then to Logan specifically, he says
"Arm and prep the warhead for detonation, then get out of here."
"No" Logan simply said before continuing with
"Keep them off of me while I get the core out." And with that he set out a number of tools from his tool case before he diligently started about his self appointed task with meticulous precision. He had gotten most of the way through his task when a monstrous looking creature entered the area they were in, surging toward Wright were he sat, apparently oblivious to all that was going on around him when the beast was wrestled to the ground mere inches from Logan, bellowing out a howl right in his ear. Wright had just finally exposed the core when a mage who seemed to be controlling the creature stepped into view and tossed a grenade that would have landed right next to Logan had he not jerked his arm away from the nuclear weapon to catch the grenade and throw it back at the mage in one smooth action. However, in doing so he had allowed the nuclear core to fall from the warhead. As quick as a snake, he grabbed the core and stopped it from impacting on the ground. The others had finally managed to wrestle the creature so that Captain Jordan could put two rounds in its skull while the grenade exploded and killed the mage.
Later that night as Logan was shaving before going to bed, he could have swore he noticed a gray hair in his head...