It was difficult to explain the position in which Colonel Nathaniel Cross found himself. The deadline came and passed. And he had only just begun to map out the number of potential threats among the many unidentified rogue actors beyond the habitable line.
And yet, high command could not relieve him of his service. There was nobody who could fulfill his position.
With each passing month, contact was made with another URA. And they were either terminated, subjugated, or incorporated back into the Union of Columbia, or at the very least, the sphere of its remnant's influence.
There were some of course, that had resisted, or were simply beyond the means of his forces to deal with. In the ruins of the far Pacific northwest, a former billionaire had seen what was coming and prepared appropriately.
They were a relatively self sustaining industrial power that operated as a corporate town from the preceding century.
