The East PacificBoard

<The Alaskan military enter quietly into their borders and use subtle weather cover tactics to sneak up on the gangs. They are surprised to find the camps fortified poorly. They realize why.. They know that HAARP will swamp their defenses, so they've chosen to go... underground>

<Realizing hostages have been taken and some of the city LE resources are under their control, teams break up. They can't use Alaskan Winter. The gangs have all grown up with the vaunted Survival retraining program.. They would expect a campaign of subterfuge and co-ordinated surprise skirmishes. They've clearly left the high ground, knowing it would be easy to target. The military needs to find a way to get inside the underground cave systems where Alaskan goods are stored, and access to the oil refineries is based>

<They camp out, wiping out tracks of their arrival. They wait.>

<No show for days. The military is puzzled. Then they realize...>

'What if they have access to the cameras, sir? What if they know we're here?'

Corporal Genghis grinds the tobacco pipe in his hand to dust. 'Crap. There goes that playbook. Hmm. Can we get in through the cave system?'

'Negative sir, too difficult to pass through. It's a natural defensive barricade.'

'Hmpf. Can we go thru.. the ice?'

'No way to do that without possible collapsing the roof on dozens of our own people, sir.'

'Well, HOW ABOUT A DIRECT ATTACK THEN?' Genghis yells.

<There is quiet in the room. The Alaskan wind can be heard blowing>

'Sir...'

Genghis sighs. 'I know, I know.. Sorry, I'm just... This wasn't supposed to happen! We spent so much time trying to fix em, re-integrate em.. We tried to bring em to society and this is how they pay us?'

Silence fills the room.

'Sorry, men. Just ranting, just ranting. Okay, let's take a break, chew some reindeer and reconvene at 5 O hu-'

'Sir, I have an idea.' It was Captain Gabriela Singh, a civilian recruit, formerly a marine engineer. 'Maybe there is a way..'

'Oh?' Genghis said and pulled some tobbaco-flavored breath thru his smashed pipe.

'We might be able to compress the ice around a central column, so it doesn't collapse when we melt sections with superconducted HAARP heat generation. We can hold it in place and-'

'Drill out a pathway, like scientists used to do with ice cores in Antarctica?'

She nodded. Genghis leaned forward.

'Can we really do that?'

Gabriela raised her eyes and shrugged. 'Theoretically.'

'Well then,' the Colonel's hand smashed down onto the makeshift table. 'Get to it, Captain.'

36 hours later, the gangs sleeping in their bunkers deep beneath the Alaskan ice were surprised by groups of soldiers bursting thru 200-metre thick ice on motorized ropes. The operation took 30 minutes and only 4 lives were lost.

'Hell of a job, Captain', Genghis said, shaking the woman by the hand. 'I guess I owe you a favor then.'

'You do, sir, and I plan to cash it. Right now.' Gabriella handed him a piece of paper.

Genghis glanced down and back up. He raised one eyebrow. 'Sub-Zeroers?'

'Yes, sir. That's what we want to call our new corps, able to conduct missions in extreme weather conditions through ice, snow and in the future, desert and even HAARP's generated conditions.'

Genghis smiled wryly and looked upon the survivors and happy families. 'Guess I can't refuse, Captain.'

Captain Singh smiled. 'Guess I made the right kind of offer, Sir.'

'Godfather fan, eh? You have guts, kid, I'll give you that.' Genghis put his arm around her shoulder and began regaling her with stories of his past days in the USA-of-yore.

And thus the Sub-Zeroer Corps was born