Operation sandstorm

The cortex

'Wow,' Hailey said in amazement while she looked around the room. It had bright lights and the walls were covered in computerscreens wich showed a constant streaming of surveillancecameras from around the world. There were multiple doors to other rooms and there were a lot of desks with papers, ipads and computers on it. Adam closed the door behind them.

'Why is it called the cortex?' Adam asked.

'Well, they were planning on calling it the core, because this is practically the military command centre of Georgia and probably more. But they didn't like the sound of that so they changed core to cortex,' Jay explained.

'At least that is the official story. In reality they had a jar on the desk by the entry and asked for suggestions. Then we voted and cortex got the most votes,' he grinned.

'You're kidding right?' Will asked.

'Nope, it's riciculous but true. Took about three months to finally make the decision,' Jay chuckled.

'Lieutenant Halstead.'

They turned their heads towards the voice and saw a man from average height and weight with grey hair and piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a high quality armycostume and he walked towards them. Jay saluted and shook the outstretched hand.

'Colonel Johnson sir.'

'Is this your unit?' the colonel asked.

'No sir, this is my sergeant Hank Voight. It's his unit. This is Vanessa Rojas, Kevin Atwater, Adam Ruzek, Kim Burgess, my partner Hailey Upton and my brother Dr. Will Halstead,' he introduced them. The colonel shook their hands.

'I'm Colonel Xander Johnson, I'm officially in charge of this operation.'

Hank nodded. 'Who is unoffically in charge?' he asked with a smirk. The colonel laughed.

'Halstead was in charge of the unit who executed this mission 8 years ago. For everybody higher up it looks like I am in charge here now, but mostly I want to leave it up to him, within some limits ofcourse. It only makes sense.'

'I appreciate it sir,' Jay said.

'What are we going to do now Jay?' Adam asked. He was a bit intimidated.

'Well first I want to wait for the rest of my unit. They should be here any second so I suggest we set up our stuff in the bunkroom and then we wait.'

'How much more are coming?' Will asked.

'Six, let's go, I'll show you guys the bunkroom. This way.' They followed Jay to a door on the side. It had a little kitchen in the back and there were about thirty beds. They all claimed one of the beds by putting their bags on them. After half an hour all of them were curiously walking around in the cortex when the door opened again. Five men dressed in fatigues entered.

'Staff sergeant Gerwitz, Lieutenant Halstead,' one of the men said. They all saluted before they exchanged hugs.

'Hey guys,' Jay said. 'Good to see you all again.'

'You to, what happened to your eye Lieutenant?'

Jay rolled his eyes. 'Little bust went wrong, guy hit me in the face,' he said grumpily. His unit laughed.

'It looks nasty, you know what you should do?' one of them asked.

'What?'

'Duck.' The whole unit burst out laughing, Mouse the hardest of them all, they exchanged some high fives. Jay gave a deathstare to his friend.

'For real?' he asked him. 'You told them the duck story?'

Mouse slapped his shoulder. 'Yep, on the second day of our tour,' he laughed. Jay glanced at him for a while longer but Mouse wasn't effected by his piercing eyes.