His 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division was taking up defensive positions outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, and he wasn’t happy with the situation at all. Colonel Marcus was standing in the doorframe of the Humvee, trying to gain just a little more visibility from the extra height. It wasn’t helping much. To add to the frustration, he didn’t have a proper military map. One of his staff sergeants had pulled this one from the glove box of his civilian car as they were rushing out of Fort Polk. The army didn’t issue proper military grade maps of North America to its corps. Shreveport was the hub of the wheel for several nuclear power plants residing along the Mississippi delta, and it was the 4/10’s objective to gain control of the region for the Independents. The decision to pledge his command to the new group had been difficult enough. Now their first mission was causing him to second-guess that commitment. During the first few months after everything had fallen apart, his brigade had been ordered to perform unthinkable acts by the regular chain of command.
