Lt. Col. Daniel F. Hunter: Rebuilding The Country

Chap.23 "Charleston"

After waking up from slumber, I sat up on the bed and was completely exhausted. The news that I received about my parents suffering their deaths at the hands of the Union just came over me in a time that it didn't need to, but, I at least know of what happened to them. I also must remember that most families were lost during the Seven Hours War and including the Uprising, I know that I had to put it behind me but I was mainly after of who was in charge of their execution. However, I looked outside the window of the compartment and saw the Charleston train station, we were finally here in West Virginia. I have to admit that Charleston was a very beautiful city for which it was so clean and clear, it still confused me of how damn clean the city was and I realized that the Combine didn't have a capable range to knock out West Virginia due to the Blue Ridged Mountains as it was higher in elevation. I walked out of my compartment and realized that Colonel Pal Maleter came out of his compartment and greeted me, he said that he had his tank right outside and that I was welcomed to travel around the capital, I said that it was okay and that we should look for the others. As I walked down the hall of the passenger car and out the entrance into the open, I realized of how crystal clear it was in the daylight, the air was fresher than in Maryland and the sky was so blue that it almost looked like sapphires in the air. While walking with Maleter on the platform and down to the main office of the station house, he asked me a question saying that something was not right and described the feeling of being watched from the trees that bordered the station complex. Once we got into the office, we were greeted warmly by the southern sounding West Virginians and talked with the station clerk for around five minutes about strange happenings in Charleston and Point Pleasant, the clerk told me about the reappearance of both Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster. Maleter was however interested in the legends and folklore stories of the Mothman, I was also interested in learning about the strange cryptids that inhabit the Appalachian mountains and was a bit more positive in mood. Ive always heard that West Virginia turns golden in the autumn, I was a bit excited but still cautious as I wanted to know of why I was here and what my purpose was.

As I got in Maleter's tank, I notice that the T-34's had a bit more space than a normal M3 Lee or a M4 Sherman tank. Now I knew that Maleter hadn't been to the United States and I had given him a map of Charleston for him to navigate, however, my mental state started to give me problems. I kept dwelling on my parents death and began to ignite my flame with vengeful ideals, I tried to block it out but it kept coming back to haunt me, nobody could see the pain within me which made me paranoid as hell. I got word that the whole group was at the Charleston Capital Building in the heart of the city but I also heard that there was a bunker that housed a top secret weapons project sanctioned by the Army and Air Force, I was more interested in seeing this bunker and what it housed, Maleter gave me a report of what types of weapons that were stored there. The list that I read of some of these weapons ranged from guns to tanks and heavy machinery, most of these guns were highly experimental while some of the tanks were complete remakes of the M2 light tanks and the M3 Stuarts. The 155mm M40 Gun Motor Carriage, M7 Priest, and T19 Howitzer Motor Carriages were some of the equipment that were being reintroduced with heavy modifications, other howitzer armed carriages were also being manufactured at this bunker. This bunker was located about twelve miles north from Charleston in the woods, the facility was officially named the Charleston Arsenal Technological Advancement Lab Of Weaponry and Naval Warfare on June 21, 2005. The lab was responsible for making "super guns" and designs for warships rather than letting the War Department or Naval Department handling of what to cook up in the lab, the main top researcher that was responsible for conducting tests on experimental guns and artillery with help for warship designs was Professor Edwin Foster Miller, Miller was born and raised in Hurricane, Utah on August 10, 1988. Edwin's history was kept top secret by the War Department due to two secret projects such as "Project Vulture" and "Project Nebula", information on these two projects were of course scarce and hardly any information was recording due to the lack of funding, but of what I was getting at here on hints of what these two projects were, they were supposed to be for anti material artillery guns and shells.