Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) by J.G. Martin Page A

meaningful intelligence, of which the Outfit surely had
a good deal, and the operation was almost a complete failure.
       His men swept the rubble for anything valuable
anyway. They were also using handheld devices to fingerprint and do retinal
scans every Outfit man they could find. They would be checked against the
database of known Outfit people to make sure they got them all. They were
especially trying to find the body of the CEO Alvin Prinz. Unfortunately many
bodies were completely buried in the rubble and may never be dug out. But he
was thorough and followed orders completely. That was how he had become the
commander of Zeta Force, the elite of the Red Berets. The elite of the elite.
       Tom smiled to himself. Not bad for a Polish kid
from Chicago. He had excelled on the football field playing linebacker for the
Chicago Bears. His ferocity and tenaciousness had gotten him noticed by the
Army recruiters and they had sent him to basic training. His utter loyalty to
the regime and his brutality in combat training had gotten him selected for Red
Beret training. He had quickly risen in the ranks as he completed each mission
without hesitation or failure.
      The Red Berets were sometimes called the Bloody
Berets behind their backs. The legend was that they dyed white berets red with
the blood of their first kill. It wasn’t true, but the Red Berets were known
for the unwillingness to retreat, as well as their brutality and lack of
restraint. They finished the job or didn’t come back. They were the elite
special forces of the U.S.T.G. and they were sent into difficult and sometimes
secret situations. They were the scalpel to the Army’s hammer. Thousands tried
out every year, but only three hundred or so made it; and some of them were
removed because they weren’t willing to go as far as necessary to be a Red
Beret.
       Tom had risen even further to become the
commander of the Zeta Force. He had a reputation as one of the most dedicated
and loyal officers in the Army. He was also well known for his cool headedness
under fire and his complete lack of fear. He had gathered similar people around
him to serve under him. They were truly the best soldiers in the world, and
they had proven it again by wiping out the Outfit.
       They were equipped with the latest technology
that the U.S.T.G. could get its hands on or manufacture. They all had advanced
Tetsudo 3 body armor that had been produced during the Collapse for Force
Protection units. It was lighter than Kevlar with just as much stopping power
and it also had the secondary function of camouflaging their heat signature. And
it also covered the arms and legs in addition to the torso. Nothing short of a
20mm cannon round could penetrate it. A helmet with an attached face mask that
sealed for nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks completed the armor. Although,
most of the time they left that off and just used a neoprene facemask. The
armor matched their BDUs and was covered in digital pattern desert camouflage,
which made sense now that everything was brown.
       He and his troops had just been issued the new
M-18 Infantry Combat Weapons from the new plant in the restarted Springfield
Armory. The M-18 ICW program encompassed a series of weapons for various roles
based on the same lower receiver. Barrels, the upper receiver, and accessories
could be swapped out to create the right weapon for the mission. Much of the
weapon was made from composite materials, and the whole thing was made on state
of the art commercial 3-D printers. It replaced all rifles and machine guns
previously used by the army and it was more accurate, had a higher rate of
fire, and was easier to maintain. Eventually the entire Army and Federal Police
force would get the new weapons, but for now only the elite forces were armed
with it.
       He watched as his handpicked troops searched
through the ruins for anything useful. There was Lieutenant Rosarita “Rosa”
Martinez, his second in